ZAS Airline of Egypt

ZAS Airline of Egypt
	ZAS McDonnell Douglas MD-87
Founded	1981
Commenced operations	November 23, 1982
Ceased operations	April 1995
Operating bases	Cairo; Amsterdam;
Fleet size	25 (during operations)
Headquarters	Cairo, Egypt
Key people	Sherif Zarkani, Emir Zarkani

ZAS Airline of Egypt (IATA: ZA, ICAO: ZAS, call sign: ZAS airlines) was an airline from Egypt that operated between 1982 and 1995.

Company history

ZAS Airline of Egypt was founded by two brothers, Sherif and Emir Zarkani, as a freight airline. Operations began on November 23, 1982 with a flight from Cairo to Amsterdam to London. Their first flight was to Amsterdam, as both brothers lived in Holland for a portion of their childhood. In 1987, ZAS was granted a license to carry passenger charter operations. Flights to Jeddah for the Hajj began that year. Then, flights to Western Europe began.

ZAS operated a variety of aircraft, from old Boeing 707s to modern MD-87s and Airbus A300s. The Gulf War of 1990-91 brought a downturn in the Egyptian tourist business and ZAS was heavily affected. Sometime in the 1990s the government wanted to nationalize the airline but Sherif and Emir refused to, so the government greatly increased their taxes and occasionally cut the water and electricity supply to their homes. After increasing difficulties, all operations ceased in April 1995. ^[1]