At a meeting here on Saturday, Bulgarian Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Gvozdeykov and Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation Mohammed Abbas Helmy Hashem discussed the signing of a new air transport agreement. The Bulgarian Transport Minister and his deputy Anna Nihneva-Nenova were on the delegation led by Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel to Egypt on Saturday.
During the talks, Gvozdeykov said that a new agreement would ensure the necessary conditions for regular flights in accordance with EU law, development of trade relations and the air carriers' access to various markets. The agreement on air transport currently in effect was signed in 1959; it does not take EU air carrier rules into view. In 2016, a bilateral memorandum of understanding affirmed four flight destinations between the two countries, but there are no regular flights at present.
Gvozdeykov noted that that transport is a priority area in the bilateral economic relations. A stronger cooperation in air transport would reduce the limitations on the flight routes, will increase the frequency of the flights and will allow for greater flexibility in pricing. The new agreement would be beneficial for the air carriers as well as for the development of tourist and business trips between Bulgaria and Egypt, he argued.
The Bulgarian Transport Minister also conferred with his Egyptian counterpart Kamel Al-Wazir. The two discussed steps to deepen the bilateral cooperation in railway and maritime transport as well as the opportunity to unveil a Ro-Ro line between the parts of Burgas and Alexandria/Damietta. The Egyptian side expressed interest in the concessions on Bulgarian ports and shared experience in building infrastructure for high-speed trains.
/DS/
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