Vodafone Malta customers in Egypt had their mobile credit topped up, the company said, as chaos reigned in the country.

Although the company did not specify when asked how much credit was given to customers, it said clients were given sufficient credit to continue with uninterrupted communication. All clients were informed of the top-up via SMS.

“The mobile service provider was concerned that, due to current events in Egypt, these customers would have had difficulty in topping up,” Vodafone Malta said. In such circumstances, the well-being of customers was of paramount importance, it said.

Regarding the network in Egypt, which was temporarily cut off by order of the government, Vodafone Group said the Egyptian authorities had the technical capability to close the company’s mobile network. “Vodafone was instructed to suspend services in selected areas but voice services were then restored,” it said.

Vodafone said there was no information on how long some other services would be suspended for, adding it would continue monitoring the situation closely.

This week, Air Malta also operated a special charter flight to help in the evacuation of foreigners from Cairo.

Although it was not established whether any Maltese were on the flight, which left on Monday, the company said the charter trip was organised on a request by a private company to evacuate its expatriate employees from Egypt.

The airline immediately informed the Maltese Embassy in Cairo in case they received any request from Maltese nationals stranded there.

Although Air Malta does not operate regular flights to Egypt, the company said it was monitoring the situation closely and may consider offering its spare availability for “any demand arising from these circumstances”.