Nesma Airlines: The Egyptian Carrier of the Saudi Nesma Group, Between Charters and Hajj Flights

An Egyptian Airline with Saudi Capital

Unlike most Egyptian carriers, Nesma Airlines belongs to a diversified Saudi industrial group, which in aviation chose to concentrate its activities on the Egyptian operation rather than on a separate Saudi division, which over the years never had a fleet of its own.

A Mid-Sized Airbus Fleet

It operates 10 Airbus aircraft, 7 A320s and 3 A321s, a uniform fleet suited both to leisure charter routes and to scheduled links with more regular demand between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Seasonal Europe

In Egypt it links Cairo, Hurghada, Luxor and Marsa Alam; in Saudi Arabia it flies to Jeddah, Riyadh, Ha'il, Tabuk and Taif, a network that partly overlaps with religious traffic to Islam's holy places. In Europe, routes to Milan, Moscow and several Russian cities remain mostly seasonal and charter.

What passengers say

The reviews available, concentrated mainly on charter routes to Europe, describe a simple, average service for the charter category, with punctuality judged acceptable outside peak periods. Among the most recurring complaints is the scarcity of information when the aircraft or schedule changes on seasonal routes, which is less structured than at traditional scheduled carriers.

Nesma Airlines makes sense for anyone buying a charter package to Egypt from a European tour operator, or for anyone who needs to combine a trip between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on routes the big carriers cover poorly. It is less suitable for anyone seeking a stable, predictable scheduled network all year round, given the significant weight of seasonal and charter routes.

If you book a seasonal European route, always reconfirm the flight in the days before departure: on these charter routes last-minute schedule changes are more frequent than on regular Egyptian or Saudi scheduled routes.