Luxor receives 1st direct charter flight from Heathrow Airport

CAIRO – 5 September 2018: Luxor received the first charter direct flight from the Heathrow Airport on Monday. Major-General Hesham Issa, the director of Luxor International Airport, said on Tuesday that EgyptAir Flight no. 762 carrying 120 Briton tourists arrived late Monday in Luxor.

Issa manifested the British tourists are planning to visit sites in the West and East banks, in addition to the landmarks in the city of Luxor. "Dozens of tourism experts and leading figures of tourist companies in Luxor welcomed the British tourists at the airport," said Issa.

"EgyptAir flight no. (761) flied from Luxor Airport to the Heathrow Airport in London with 130 Britons on broad," added Issa.

He stressed many direct and charter flights were resumed from and to foreign cities, with hundreds of tourists on board to visit Luxor.

In August, a newly-discovered sphinx was found during the development of Al-Kabbash Road project. General Director of Luxor Antiquities Mohamed Abdel Aziz remarked that the ministry is currently working on lifting the statue, as it cannot be extracted directly from its place due to the nature of the environment it is in.

Moreover, Abdel Aziz added that Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani urged tourists to visit Al-Kabbash road to see the statue.

In the same context, Bassam al-Shamma, an Egyptologist, remarked that the Sphinx’s discovery was expected as several sphinx statues were found across Luxor such as the sphinx statues for King Aymanhotb III and Thutmose IV.

Al-Kabbash Road project, which will be finished by the end of 2018, was resumed in 2017 with a budget of LE 230 million ($12.7 million) in cooperation with Luxor governorate, the head of the projects’ sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, Waheed Aboul Ela, told Egypt Today Friday, quoting Minister Anani.

Aboul Ela said the road will be paved to allow easy access for visitors. The project also includes the development of the floors, the completion of excavation and repairing the collection of Al-Kabbash, and ram-headed sphinxes as well as re-installing them.

Anani announced that an engineering committee visited Luxor on May 27 to discuss all the project’s obstacles and to prepare a detailed study for the current situation as well as a comprehensive financial feasibility study for the project.

Al-Kabbash Road is the road that connects Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple. The project to excavate and restore Al-Kabbash Road began in 2005 and about LE 600 million have been spent on the project. The project was halted after the January 25 Revolution.