ZAS Airline of Egypt

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.^{[citation needed]}

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][volume needed][page needed]}