Egypt reportedly interested in the A400M transport aircraft

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World Defense & Security News - Egypt
 
 
 
Egypt reportedly interested in the A400M transport aircraft
 
The Egyptian Air Force seems to be interested in the Airbus A400M transport aircraft, according to Spanish Media. Egypt currently operates a fleet of 24 Airbus C295. In case that the A400M is selected, the Arab country would become the first export market of the platform, outside the group of countries that take part in its construction programme.
     
Egypt interested in the A400M transport aircraft 640 001Airbus A400M during a display at Farnborough Air Show 2014
(Credit: Airbus Defence & Space)
     
El Mundo newspaper quoted the words of Mr. Fernando Alonso, the President of Airbus Spain, who attended an aerospace engineers association forum. He mentioned that Airbus is doing its best to promote the aircraft in new markets and that so far a number of countries is interested. Among them is Egypt.

The second source that confirms the Egyptian interest, is the «andaluciainformacion.es”. According to its article, Mr. Pilar Albiac, Executive Vice-President for Operations, visited the company’s factory in San Pablo, Spain. In a speech he gave to the workers he asked them to fulfill the production schedule of 2015 within the required timeframe. That would make the aircraft even more attractive to export markets. He also stated that Egypt is interested in the A400M.

It is probable that there have already been multiple meetings between the two sides. According to the article, there has been no specific information on the number of aircraft the Egyptian Air Force could probably acquire but a timely delivery has been among the issues discussed. This news shows that despite the deadly accident last May, when an A400M crashed in Seville, there is no lack of confidence in the platform and the company is highly active in promoting it.