This Is How El-Sisi Handed Over the Civil Aviation Sector to Military Leaders

In a study by the American Carnegie Center for Middle East Studies, entitled "The Guardians of the Republic", a paragraph was received indicating the military's incursion into all sectors of the Egyptian state.

"The overthrow of Mohamed Morsi (the late president) by the armed forces in July 2013 has opened the way for unbridled growth," reads the paragraph.

With General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi coming to power, no civilian sector has been spared from the control of military officers, mainly the civil aviation sector, which has witnessed the involvement of powerful military ranks in airports, bodies and companies.

Dozens of generals have divided Egypt's airports, removed civilians from them, and the policy of replacing civilians with military personnel has become popular, it is only natural to read the news that an army brigade was appointed to head an organizational structure in the ministry, or that it received the management of an international civilian airport.

This policy has had a reverse impact on the area, which is now teeming with highly qualified and experienced retirees, as well as hundreds of unemployed civilian pilots.

The security dimension adopted by the regime's president, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who only secures military colleagues at the head of the agencies, cannot be overlooked as the most loyal to him and his government.

"Musical Chairs"

On March 1, 2021, Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar issued a controversial move when he decided to appoint Major General Murad Mohammed al-Sayed as director of Hurghada International Airport and Major General Nabil Al-Mallah as director of Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport.

In addition to the appointment of Major General Khaled Abdeslam as Director of Sohag International Airport, And Major General Hisham Farid as Director of Luxor International Airport.

Carnegie Center senior researcher Yazid Sayegh commented on the decision by tweeting: "The game of musical chairs continues among the brigades of the Egyptian armed forces. Retirees in the highest positions of civil aviation."  

According to the official website of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, there are 27 international and local airports, including two B.O.T. airports, Marsa Alam and Al Alamein, with a capacity of about 30 million passengers per year for all Egyptian airports.

Complex Network

After nearly seven years of Sisi's rule, the military has taken over the rest of the civil aviation sector by holding most of the high positions in the sector, most notably:

1. Major General Ashraf Hafez, Director of Terminal 1 Cairo International Airport.  

2. Major General Ahmed Ramadan, Director of Terminal 3 Cairo International Airport.

3. Major General Jamal al-Jundi, Head of Operations, Cairo Air Port Company. 

4. Major General Mallah Hossam Hamada, Head of Administrative Development and Human Resources at Cairo Air Port Company.

5. Major General Mohammed Ahmed Rashid, Director of Burj Al Arab Airport in Alexandria.

6. Major General Tayyar Ashraf Adel, Director of Assiut Airport.

7. Major General Tayyar Hatem Talha, Deputy Director of Assiut Airport. 

8. Major General Tarek Zada, Director of Morsi Alam Airport. 

9. Major General Murad Mohammed Al Sayed, Director of Hurghada Airport.

10. Major General Nabil Mallah, Director of Sharm el-Sheikh Airport. 

11. Major General Khaled Abdeslam, Director of Sohag International Airport.

12. Major General Hisham Farid, Director of Luxor Airport. 

13. Major General Ashraf Mohamed El Sayed, Director of Morsi Matrouh Airport. 

14. Major General Mohammed Salem, Director of Sphinx Airport. 

15. Major General Osama Amin, Director of Taba International Airport.

16. Major General Tayyar Bassem Bayoumi, Director of Aswan International Airport. 

17. Major General Hisham Abdel Fattah, Director of Al-Arish International Airport.

18. Major General Tayyar Hani Ramzi al-Deeb, Director of Port Said Airport.

19. Major General Adel Mahjoub, Advisor to the President of The Airports and Air Navigation Holding Company.

20. Major General Tayyar Ahmed Mansour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Airports Company.

21. Major General Mohamed Kamal, Assistant Chairman of Egypt Air Ground Services.

22. Major General Tarek Naseer, Assistant Minister of Aviation for Civil Aviation Security and Follow-up.

23. Major General Mohamed Abdel Rahman, Chairman of Egypt Air Complementary Industries.

The De Facto Governor

When Mohamed Manar Anba, minister of civil aviation, was appointed on December 22, 2019, the same day saw the appointment of Major General Staff Pilot Montaser Manaa Mihoob Gad al-Haq as deputy minister, effectively the ministry's most powerful and visible man in the media.

Manaa, the first official to hold that position in the history of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, graduated from the Air College in 1982, joined the Air Force as an Apache fighter pilot at various military airports and was included in military positions and commands, until he retired from the armed forces with the rank of General Staff of War. 

Prior to taking office, Manaa's mission was to oversee the airports of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Egyptian, Arab and foreign airlines under its banner, but his most prominent role lies in overseeing all contracts of international agreements on the civil aviation sector concluded by the government.

The most prominent episode in Manaa's history came on February 16, 2015, when, as head of the Air Force Arming Division and chairman of the Practice and Contracting Committee, he signed a contract to supply 24 French Rafale aircraft to the Egyptian Air Force, and signed an agreement with the president of M.B.A.A. to supply missiles and ammunition for the Rafale.

General Montaser Manaa's name has always been accompanied, in official news, by Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar Anba, who is hardly mentioned by the Minister except his deputy, when dealing with news of visits, receptions and various forums related to the Ministry.

Crushing Civilians

About 570 students graduate from the Egyptian Academy of Civil Aviation Sciences each year, according to earlier statements by Ilyas Sadiq, chairman of the Academy's Board of Directors.

The student's expenses amount to about $49,000 per year (770,000 Egyptian pounds), and the academy was established, according to the Royal Decree of May 7, 1932, which is state-owned and is subject to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

In the post-January 25, 2011 revolution, under coalitions and calls for liberalization and restructuring in other state institutions, the civil aviation sector did not miss those calls.

On January 7, 2013, the Civil Aviation Revolutionaries Coalition announced in a statement that "the Ministry of Civil Aviation will be a civilian ministry and will not be allowed by its employees to re-establish military control."

In June 2013, the coalition and a number of unemployed pilots filed a petition calling for a ban on the appointment of military pilots, who resigned or retired, from EgyptAir, especially as about 40 percent of their civilian counterparts were disrupted.

One of the most prominent reasons they mentioned was the military's lack of knowledge of the command of civilian aircraft models, as they said during their meeting with members of the Transport Committee of the Shura Council that "the presence of military pilots has become undesirable with widespread unemployment among civilians."

Following the July 3, 2013 coup, and the military's grip on the state's joints, particularly the strategic civil aviation sector, the coalition disappeared and those calls were hidden.

Sisi's Strategy 

A former official at Cairo airport, who asked not to be named, told al-Estiklal: "The issue of appointing military leaders in the Ministry of Civil Aviation is old, but it was balanced and subject to many controls, the most important of which is the absence of expertise and civil competencies that worked for many years in various sectors of civil aviation, and it was the one who led the rudder and took over the leadership, and the role of the military was between supervision and consultation."

He added: "In the last years of the era of the late President Hosni Mubarak, the rudder turned, and the ministry, EgyptAir and the companies of the holding company EgyptAir, and various airports of the Republic entered a large number of officers and army brigades, although it was noticeable but remained in a normal framework as well."

"All of this cannot be compared to the current situation, as most civil aviation leaders, including specialized and technical sectors such as medical, engineering, shipping and unloading, are full of military personnel, not only playing an advisory role, but governing and managing unchecked." 

"Therefore, the consequences were the transfer of a large number of civilians to retirement, the denial of deep experience in Egypt in this field, and, moreover, some Arab, African and Asian countries have attracted skilled employees and pilots to benefit from them."

There has been a major brain drain over the past five years, and if the situation continues, the ministry will be completely bulldozed, which harms the country and its national security.

"It is well known that airports and the aviation sector in general are a focal point for the stability of the regimes, for example in Turkey's 2016 coup, the coup forces went to the airport to control it, and aircraft and air control were the most dangerous point," he said.

"In Egypt, Sisi seeks to secure his regime in other areas, including civil aviation, where his regime tracks opponents or politicians through airports, whether by preventing them from traveling, arresting them, and other entry, exit and travel procedures for senior military and political leaders, which Sisi seeks to control, control and subject to his influence," he concluded.