Egypt: Cairo’s Terminal 2 Preparing to Increase its Capacity by 8 Million Passengers

If you go to Cairo airport, you will see a large construction area next to Terminal 3. On one side is a brand new all-glass departure lounge which is connected by an overpass to the arrival lounge. 14 gates are designed to bring passengers to shining 38 new immigration counters.

At the far end of the terminal is a double floor gate to service the Airbus A380.  In the middle of the terminal, there is a 26,000 meter square space for a modern shopping and eating area to service the passengers. And a state of the art baggage handling system is expected to ensure speedy flows of baggage with high security checks.

"This project is a good example of the fruitful and strong partnership between the Government of Egypt and the World Bank," said Mahmoud Essmat; Chairman of the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation (EHCAAN). "Previous partnerships included the state-of-art Terminal 3 in CAI and the Terminal 1 building in Sharm El-Sheikh international airport."

In 2010, the World Bank embarked on an ambitious plan to upgrade and expand the second terminal building at Cairo International Airport. Of the US$ 436 million project, US$ 280 million of it is financed by the Bank. After some initial delays in the aftermath of the 25 January revolution in 2011, project implementation has accelerated.

“Over the last five years, around 12,000 workers have pooled their efforts to renovate and expand Cairo International Airport’s Terminal 2,“said Ihsan Sadek, Director of the Project Management Unit, EHCAAN.“We are all shooting to bring these works to completion in the second half of 2016,” he added.

“We are pleased to partner with Egypt on this important project, “ said Asad Alam, the World Bank’s Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti. “This will help enhance Egypt’s status as a gateway to the region, support investment and job creation, and stimulate tourism.”

“The project aims to support Egypt to improve the quality of airport services and strengthen its air transport capacity. Having a good and reliable airport is very important for tourism which is an important sector for job creation and for bring foreign exchange revenues,” said Olivier Le Ber, the Bank’s Lead Transport Specialist.

Cairo International Airport is the largest airport in Egypt, and the second largest in Africa after Johannesburg airport in South Africa. The project was designed to increase its capacity by about 8 million passengers, bringing its total capacity to 26 million passengers a year.

In 2011, air traffic at Cairo International Airport dropped to 13.1 million passengers a year after several years of growth that peaked at 16.1 million passengers in 2010, the year when foreign tourism all but collapsed during Egypt’s Arab Spring. In 2012, traffic rebounded to reach 14.7 million, about the same volume of traffic as in 2008 and 2009.

Wearing the green construction helmet, Engineer Ahmed Hosni Gabr, manager of what is known as the “TB2” (Terminal Building 2) project for Cairo’s Airport Company, said the renovation comprised 38 new check-in counters, advanced baggage handling systems with state of the art baggage scanning, and 14 departure gates (compared with the 7 gates the terminal first had in 1986).

Air passengers to Cairo can expect a better experience when TB2 becomes operational.