Private aviation specialist Air Charter Service has contracted aircraft which could be used to evacuate workers from Egypt if the security situation gets worse in the north African country.
Protests have gripped Egypt for the last two weeks leading to the removal from power of president Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army.
Air Charter Service said it had received enquiries from several companies worried about staff based in Egypt. ACS added that it had already contracted several aircraft which are now on standby at Cairo airport in case firms decide their staff should leave the country.
Justin Bowman, ACS’s deputy managing director, said that these aircraft would be able to fly to Dubai if the situation in Egypt deteriorates.
He added: “We are also receiving requests to fly to Cyprus and other surrounding countries to escape the troubles in Egypt.
“We have a huge amount of experience in large scale evacuations – in early 2011, during the Arab Spring uprisings, we evacuated almost 15,000 foreign nationals from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, and had people on the ground there managing the mass exodus.
“If the current situation escalates, we may find ourselves in a similar position.”