Home
>
Egypt >
Cairo >
Air Marshal | Ahmed Mohamed Shafik
Air Marshal | Ahmed Mohamed Shafik
Share
Air Marshal / AHMED MOHAMED SHAFIK During the War of Attrition (1967 to 1970), Shafik saw active service as the Multi-Task Airwing Commander.
Air Marshal Ahmed Mohamed Shafik (Arabic: احمد محمد شفيق), MSc, PhD ( born November 1941) a fighter pilot who served as the commander of Egyptian Air Force from 1996-2002, and was nominated in 2002 to become the Egyptian Minister for Civil Aviation. Shafik was born in Cairo in November 1941 and joined the Egyptian Air Force as a young man, graduating from the Egyptian Air Force Academy in 1961. La
ter in his career he gained a masters degree in military sciences and a PhD in the National Strategy of Outer-Space.[1]
As a young officer, Shafik served as a fighter pilot and was later appointed as fighter air squadron commander. Subsequently he took up a post as an air base commander.[1]
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Shafik was a senior fighter pilot under Hosni Mubarak's command. It is claimed that Shafik shot down two Israeli aircraft on October 14.[2]
During his 40 years of service in the Egyptian Air Force as a fighter pilot, he has flown several types of fighter jets including the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 and the Dassault Mirage 2000, he also acted as the wing commander for the Egyptian Air Force acrobatic team. In 1984 Shafik was appointed a military attaché in the Egyptian Embassy in Rome. He continued in this role until 1986. The years from 1988 to 1991 saw Shafik serve in several military senior command positions before he was appointed as the Commander of the Air Operations Department.[1]
In September 1991, Shafik was appointed as the Air Force's Chief of Staff, holding this position until April 1996, when he became Commander of the Egyptian Air Force. In 2002, he was appointed as Minister of Civil Aviation and was succeeded by his chief of staff Air Marshal Magdy Galal Sharawi .[1]. As a civil aviation minister, he tackled some of the major problems at the national carrier EgyptAir [3], upgraded Egyptian airports management and infrastructure and improved relations with domestic and international private operators and international regulatory authorities. Shafik undertook an ambitious restructure plan for EgyptAir and managed to achieve a turn around for the company's performance, Egyptair became a Star Alliance [1] member in 2008. Also, Shafik modernized the Egyptian Airports, the Cairo International Airport [4] was transfomed to a regional hub through the inauguration of Terminal 3 in 2008 bringing its annual capacity to 22 million passengers, Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport annual capacity reached 8 million passengers after the opening of Terminal 2.
