State-owned carrier Egyptair intends to procure up to 24 CS300 aircraft from Canada’s Bombardier, it was announced on 14 November.

Once finalised, the order could be worth $1.1bn based on list prices, or up to $2.2bn if the carrier opts to exercise purchase rights for 12 additional CS300s, Bombardier said.

In October last year, the leasing arm of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) agreed to finance eight of the nine new Boeing 737-800 planes that Egyptair intends to acquire as part of its expansion strategy.

The nine planes are valued at $864m based on list price.

Egyptair and its subsidiaries Egyptair Express and Egyptair Cargo dominate the local aviation market, but accumulated losses of EGP10bn ($1.1bn) between 2010 and June 2014.

A restructuring programme has helped significantly reduce losses in recent years but the airline’s goal to become profitable in 2-15-2016 has been hampered by the drop in the number of tourists visiting Egypt in the wake of the terror attack on a Russian airliner departing Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2015 as well as the crash of Egyptair MS804 in May 2016.

It is understood that the number of tourists visiting the county dropped by an estimated 40 per cent in 2016.