Egypt opens two new international airports
EGYPT. The crisis of Covid-19 and the gloom of the world tourism sector do not prevent Abdel Fattah al-Sissi from being confident in the recovery of tourism. The Egyptian President inaugurated, Monday 29 June 2020 and by videoconference, two international airports and several projects east of Cairo including the palace of Baron Empain just restored in Heliopolis and several roads.
The first will serve the new administrative capital (NAC) of the country, located near Cairo. Located on a 4 km² plot of land, it is part of the plan to link the areas east of Cairo and the cities of Shorouk, Badr, Heliopolis and those of the Suez Canal governorates. Equipped with forty-five buildings and a main terminal of 5,000 m², this airport will have a capacity of 300 passengers per hour.
The second, called Sphinx, is located at the extreme west of the capital (Giza). It belongs to the long list of projects in the government plan to boost tourism in the country and had already opened its runways in 2019 as a test for some operations after an investment of 300 M€. The Sphinx is located near the districts of the city of October 6 (Greater Cairo), less than twenty kilometers from the pyramids of Giza, the city of Sheikh Zayed and the governorates of Fayoum and Beni Souef.
The two new infrastructures will be able to relieve Cairo’s international airport, which is currently very congested.
Only three governorates accessible by foreign tourists
According to Mohamed Manar Anba, Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation, international airports must reopen on July 1, 2020, after three months of closure and night curfew in the country to limit the spread of the pandemic. Domestic flights have never ceased and hotels have been allowed to operate at 50% of their capacity as of June 1, 2020.
However, foreign tourists will only be able to travel to three coastal governorates, those of the Red Sea (South-East of the country with mainly the seaside resort of Hurghada), South-Sinai (North-East with the seaside resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba and Dahab and the sites of the Monastery of Saint Catherine and Mount Sinai) and Marsa Matruh (North-West). In order to encourage their arrival, the Egyptian government has decided to abolish tourist visa fees between July 1 and October 31, 2020.
Egypt has been heavily affected by the coronavirus with 66,754 confirmed cases and 2,872 deaths according to data from the CSSE of Johns Hopkins University.
SOURCE: Econostrum
