The Government of Egypt’s two Austal-built high speed vehicle ferries have officially commenced operations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, introducing a new standard of ferry service across the Red Sea. The important milestone was achieved on the back of Austal’s recent award of a technical management and maintenance contract for the two catamaran ferries.
Each 288.7 ft vessel now performs six return trips per week, operating on 100 nautical mile route between Dibba in Saudi Arabia and Safaga in Egypt. The service has already proven popular with Pilgrims travelling on to Mecca, Egyptian workers travelling to and from Saudi Arabia as well as business and leisure travellers. So far more than 69700 people have utilized the service, which has also facilitated the transport of 3514 vehicles and 730 trucks.
Integral to the successful launch of the new service, Austal’s comprehensive technical management and maintenance package is being undertaken over a three-year period and includes options for an additional two years. The package will see Austal perform planned and preventative maintenance support, unscheduled maintenance, management and performance of annual surveys and maintenance periods as well as shore-based engineering support.
As a result, Austal has established a dedicated, fully staffed service office in the Egyptian port city of Safaga, where it will utilise the region’s existing maintenance docking facilities where required. Along with building on the company’s extensive experience in the Middle East region, Austal General Manager – Service, Michael McCourt, said the project demonstrated Austal’s growing technical management and maintenance capability.
The two 287.7 ft ferries Cairo and Riyadh were originally delivered to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in December 2008 and later gifted to the Egyptian Government to improve the standard of ferry services across the Red Sea. Each vessel has the capacity to carry 1200 passengers, 120 cars and 15 trucks at an operating speed of 37 knots.