FlyEgypt

If you stood at German vacation airports in the late 2010s, you may have them in your logbook without remembering much about them: a Boeing 737 with an Egyptian SU- registration and “flyEgypt” titles, bringing vacationers to the Red Sea. FlyEgypt was never a big airline, but it was a typical representative of the Egyptian charter scene – and it has been history since October 2024. This page summarizes what you need to know about the airline to classify old sightings properly.

FlyEgypt at a glance

FlyEgypt was a private Egyptian airline based in Cairo. It was founded in 2014 as a charter airline with a single cabin class. The first flight went from Cairo to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on February 12, 2015. The industry service CAPA also lists it under the name T1 Airlines and names the Talaat Moustafa Group, a large Egyptian conglomerate, as a backer.

The business stood on two legs. On one hand, FlyEgypt flew vacationers from Europe to Egyptian beach resorts on behalf of tour operators. By its own account, the airline connected around 80 European cities with Egypt in charter traffic. On the other hand, from May 2016 it offered low-cost scheduled flights, first from Alexandria and Asyut to Kuwait, later mainly from Cairo to the Gulf region – including Riyadh, Jeddah, Medina, Yanbu and Sharjah.

Its bases were Cairo Airport and Borg El Arab Airport near Alexandria. FlyEgypt never belonged to an alliance. In October 2024, the airline ceased flight operations.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code FT: appeared in the flight number, so on departure boards, travel documents and in the tour operators’ schedules.
• ICAO code FEG: appeared in the air traffic control flight plan and therefore on flight trackers.
• Callsign SKY EGYPT: this is how the crew identified itself on the radio.

For spotters going through old tracker data, FEG is the most important. If a callsign with FEG shows up in your logs, FlyEgypt was the operator. If a different code appears even though the departure board showed an FT flight number, a leased-in aircraft from another company probably flew. How to match tracker history with your own sightings is explained in the guide to flight tracking for spotters.

The fleet: Boeing 737 Next Generation

FlyEgypt relied on a single aircraft type, the Boeing 737 of the Next Generation family. That is typical for charter airlines on medium-haul routes: one type means uniform maintenance, interchangeable crews and flexible planning.

Type	Seats	Role	Spotter note
Boeing 737-800	189, one class	Backbone of the fleet, leisure and scheduled flights	Stretched 737NG with two pairs of overwing exits
Boeing 737-700	fewer than the 737-800	At times in the fleet	Shorter fuselage, only one pair of overwing exits

How many aircraft FlyEgypt had varied widely and is not documented without gaps; the owned fleet always stayed small, though. Shortly before the end, according to a ch-aviation report, only a single owned aircraft was left: the Boeing 737-800 SU-TMN, which FlyEgypt had leased from the lessor AerCap. The airline covered the remaining demand largely with leased-in aircraft including crew, known as wet lease. How this model works is explained in the article Wet lease explained; the basics on lessors such as AerCap are under Aircraft leasing.

737-800 or 737-700? How to tell them apart

At first glance, both versions look almost identical in the same livery. On photos from the FlyEgypt era, a few details help you identify them – more in the guide How to tell the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

The overwing exits are the most reliable. On a side shot, you can count them quickly. Winglets, on the other hand, hardly help, since both versions can have them.

How to recognize FlyEgypt

With FlyEgypt, there are three features you can rely on: the Egyptian registration with SU- on the tail, the Boeing 737 Next Generation type and the brand name “flyEgypt” on the fuselage. The last owned aircraft carried the registration SU-TMN.

It gets harder with the leased-in aircraft. Because FlyEgypt flew a large part of its schedule with other companies’ aircraft and crews, an aircraft in a completely different livery could also land under an FT flight number – with its own registration and the ICAO code of the actual operator. How to recognize such mixed cases is shown in the article on hybrid and mixed liveries. If you photographed such an aircraft, strictly speaking it is a sighting of the lessor, not of FlyEgypt.

FlyEgypt in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

In German-speaking Europe, you saw FlyEgypt almost only as a charter carrier for tour operators. The flights brought vacationers to the beach resorts on the Red Sea and the Sinai – Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Alam were among the typical destinations. The difference between such flights and classic scheduled service is explained in the article Charter flight vs. scheduled flight.

The airline showed up early in Switzerland: in July 2015, a few months after its first flight, FlyEgypt launched a weekly seasonal flight from Zurich to Marsa Alam. In Germany, the network was at times much broader. At the end of 2018, FlyEgypt and Air Cairo together served eleven German airports for several tour operators, according to a report by airliners.de. Which of them FlyEgypt flew to changed with the contracts and is not fully documented. Egypt charters in Germany generally depart from many vacation airports, from Düsseldorf and Frankfurt to Munich and Leipzig/Halle – so check the actual schedule for old sightings before you assign an airport to the airline.

For spotters, FlyEgypt was thus a classic “exotic in leisure traffic”: not rare enough for a hunt, but not an everyday subject either. As is usual with charter flights, the flights depended on fixed days of the week in the tour operators’ programs. Alongside FlyEgypt, Egyptian competitors such as Air Cairo and Nile Air flew the same routes, plus European and Turkish leisure airlines such as TUIfly, SunExpress or Corendon Airlines.

The landing ban in December 2018

A chapter that German vacationers and spotters experienced directly at the time: on December 5, 2018, the German Federal Aviation Office revoked FlyEgypt’s and Air Cairo’s permission to fly to German airports with immediate effect.

According to media reports, the reason was catering: both airlines had loaded onboard meals in Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, which was not permitted under German security rules for flights to Germany. The airlines changed their procedures and were allowed to fly again afterward – FlyEgypt returned before Air Cairo, which brought vacationers to the Red Sea again from December 28, 2018. Shortly after the ban, ch-aviation also reported that the tour operator groups TUI and Thomas Cook were dropping both airlines.

For spotters, the episode shows how sensitively charter traffic reacts. A single regulatory decision can remove an entire airline from your airport’s schedule overnight.

The end in October 2024

The last years were difficult. The owned fleet shrank to a single aircraft, and the airline increasingly flew with leased-in capacity. According to a ch-aviation report of October 21, 2024, FlyEgypt ceased flight operations. The last owned 737-800, SU-TMN, had been in maintenance in Cairo since September 20, 2024, after a flight from Jeddah.

How the end played out is remarkable. FlyEgypt wanted to dissolve itself and return its operating license. The Egyptian civil aviation authority ECAA refused, however, and also refused to remove the aircraft from the Egyptian register. The reason was outstanding claims – including from lessors, Egyptian airports, air traffic control, former employees and also tour operators in Germany and Italy.

We have not found a documented relaunch as of October 2026. The airline’s website is still reachable, but that does not prove ongoing flight operations. Treat FlyEgypt as a historic airline therefore. You’ll find more examples of how airlines disappear from the market in the article on major airline collapses in Europe.

FlyEgypt and the other Egyptian airlines

For a country of its size, Egypt has a surprising number of airlines, mainly thanks to tourism on the Red Sea. FlyEgypt was one of the smaller private companies.

Airline	Role	Typical appearance in DACH
EgyptAir	State-owned network airline, Star Alliance	Scheduled flights to Cairo
Air Cairo	Low-cost and leisure airline	Leisure flights to the Red Sea
Nile Air	Private airline	Scheduled and charter flights
AlMasria Universal Airlines	Private airline	Charter flights for tour operators
Air Sinai	EgyptAir subsidiary	Special role, hardly in DACH
FlyEgypt	Private charter and low-cost airline (until 2024)	Leisure flights to the Red Sea

If you want to spot in Egypt itself, it’s best to get informed beforehand: photography at Egyptian airports is tricky and can quickly cause trouble. What applies there is explained in the article Photography bans in Egypt, and general advice is in Spotting abroad.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every SU- registration for FlyEgypt – EgyptAir, Air Cairo, AlMasria and Nile Air also fly with Egyptian registration.
• Confusing FlyEgypt with EgyptAir – despite the similar name, FlyEgypt was a private airline with no connection to the state-owned EgyptAir.
• Equating the FT flight number with the operator – leased-in aircraft flew under FT but belonged to other airlines.
• Not telling the 737-700 and 737-800 apart – the number of overwing exits settles it immediately.
• Thinking FlyEgypt is active – flight operations ended in October 2024.

Conclusion

FlyEgypt was a small private airline that shuttled between Europe, Egypt and the Gulf region for almost ten years. For spotters in the DACH region, it was mainly a charter carrier on the way to the Red Sea – recognizable by SU- registrations, Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft and the “flyEgypt” titles. Because the airline flew a lot with leased-in aircraft toward the end, the registration decides whether you really have FlyEgypt in your logbook for old sightings.