History – Air Sinai – Frankfurt Aviation Friends

Air Sinai

Established in the wake of the peace process between Egypt and Israel in 1982 by Egyptair, Cairo based Air Sinai mainly operated scheduled services between Cairo and Tel Aviv, filling the gap after the defunct of Nefertiti Airlines on this route few months ago. Operations by this Egyptair subsidary began in December 1982 using a Boeing 707-331B leased from Trans World Airlines, soon followed by a Boeing 737-200 leased from parent company a few days later. In April 1983 the Boeing 707 left Air Sinai and a Fokker 27 joined the carrier. In November 1989 a second Boeing 737 was leased from Egyptair, replaced the existing 737 in January 1990. Air Sinai stopped its operations in 2003, now being part of Egyptair. Although all Air Sinai aircraft were operated between Egypt and Israel, sometimes they were used on Egyptair flights outside the of the two countries.

N18712 Boeing 707-331B

Ordered by Trans World Airlines in September 1965, Boeing 707-331B N18712 (c/n 19226 / 585) made its first flight on 18.05.1967 and was delivered to Trans World Airlines on 1 June 1967. It was used by TWA until November 1981, when transferred to a leasing company.

From November 1981 on N18712 was used by various carriers until March 1984 when it was returned and ending up in the KC-135E programme. Air Sinai took advantage of this Boeing 707 until March 1983, when it was returned and later leased by Maof as N18712. In April 1984 it was returned and withdrawn from use.

SU-AYO / SU-GAN / Boeing 737

Delivered to Egyptair in July 1976, SU-AYO was transferred to Air Sinai in January 1983. SU-AYO (c/n 21227 / 458) left Air Sinai in November 1981, when it was replaced by SU-GAN (s/n 21226 / 466) in 1990. This Boeing 737-2N7 was delivered to Egyptian Government as SU-AYN in May 1976, before it was bought by Egyptair ten years later and operated by Air Sinai until 1999 as SU-GAN.