UK Charter flights to Luxor cancelled for Summer 2012

The UK Nile Cruise market seems to have been dealt a huge blow for summer 2012 with the cancellation of both Monday flights from London Gatwick.

Currently the last available Monday outbound flights on both Monarch and Easy Jet is the 23rd April though Easy jets Wednesday service continues till the 20th June.

This will then leave only Egypt Airs flight from London Heathrow as the only direct service to Luxor on the day when most of the UK Nile Cruises start their service.

It seems the reason for the cancellations is pure commerce, ie the flights were not selling sufficiently well to make the route profitable and with the Egyptian Tourism board seemingly not in a position to offer any support this will create further problems for a market still struggling to recover after the events of 2012.

Thomson's Wednesday flights from both London Gatwick and Manchester will still be operating but with most of the UK Boats, The RA II being one of the exceptions, operating a schedule where they have already sailed from Luxor it remains to be seems what this will mean and how it will effect tourists who have already booked a Nile Cruise holiday.

Jordan and Turkey Holidays

As well as our Egypt programs, for 2012 we will be selling a selection of quality holidays to Jordan and Turkey from weekend breaks to extended classical tours with the same quality and service that we offer for Egypt.

Our Istanbul weekend starts at just £459.00 pp and our Jordan weekend from just £599.00 pp based on 2 people with private sightseeing included at not extra charge.

We also have a selection of extended tours that showcase each of these beautiful and fascinating countries from 4 to 8 nights and all at very very competitive prices. So if you are looking for something different this year why not Jordan or Turkey??

Cairo-Aswan Super Cruise

Several Nile Cruise companies are planning to restart the Cairo-Aswan "long Nile cruise" which previously operated between Cairo and Aswan and vice versa.

The planned restart after 16 years is hoped to give tourism to Upper Egypt a boost as the Cruise had previously been a very popular way to see many of Egypt's fantastic historical treasures. The cruise was stopped for a number of reason but chiefly due to lower water levels as well as a lack of good docks for the boats.

Only a small number of Nile Cruises companies will have the license to operate this service and most are building new purpose built luxury boats to cater for demand. In most cases the boats will be smaller but with larger cabins and more top end amenities such as spa and aromatherapy facilities, fitness centres and al a carte dinning.

The planned start is March 2012 and here at Atp Travel we will be offering several boats to our customers. This certainly is an exciting new development for Egyptian tourism.

2012 Nile Cruises

Good morning and a happy new year to one and all, though on day like to day there really is nothing much good about it !!!

January is never really a good month for most people what with the post christmas blues, the bad weather and the bills to pay for all the presents bought. So I thought a few photos of our Luxury Nile Cruise boats showing warm and sunny Egypt seemed like a good idea.

January is a great time to visit Egypt, the weather is not too hot and in general the tourist sites are quieter than most other months and at the moment there are some great deals on flights from both Gatwick and Manchester. So if you fancy escaping the cold English winter why not enjoy a luxury Nile Cruise.

Again a very happy new year to you all.