New terminal, but not the end
Although Cairo International Airport is in the midst of a major upgrade -- including the addition of a new terminal -- its ambitions may be impossible to meet, writes Amira Ibrahim
After much hand wringing, aviation authorities have decided to go through with the second phase of Cairo International Airport's long-awaited upgrade and expansion plans. The project includes the construction of a new terminal, the airport's third.
According to Ibrahim Manna', who heads the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, "the airport's capacity currently stands at six million passengers per year for Terminal 1, and 3.6 million for Terminal 2. The new terminal's capacity will be 11 million passengers per year."
Manna' said plans for the new terminal were drawn up by both Egyptian and Dutch engineering firms, "both of which have also carried out the designs for a new terminal to expand Sharm El-Sheikh airport."
At a recent press conference held by Manna', Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq, and Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, the latter told reporters that "the World Bank had offered to provide 100 per cent of the funding" for the materials that needed to be imported from abroad to build the new terminals, "which reflects its trust in the Egyptian government and its aviation sector".
The two new terminals at Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh will cost $330 million. Cairo's Terminal 3 will consist of a three-level main central building with mezzanines, boasting 162,000 square metres of arrival and departure halls, basement and baggage-handling facilities, and workshops. "The project also includes taxiways, an apron control tower, airside roads, an aviation oil supply system, aircraft waste disposal systems and a passenger loading bridge," Manna' said. Construction is set to begin next week and is due to be completed by January 2007.
The Sharm El-Sheikh terminal, meanwhile, will include two main levels featuring departure and arrival halls, as well as duty free and retail areas. The terminal's peak capacity will be 2,500 passengers per hour, and is due to be completed by December 2005.
Although it is clear that Sharm El-Sheikh -- whose popularity as an international tourist destination is on the rise -- will benefit from the construction of the new terminal, the situation is more complex at Cairo airport.
Aviation officials said they want the airport to become a regional hub, a goal critics argued would require much more than just a new terminal. In fact, critics said the idea was a classic case of too little, too late -- something that should have been implemented in the 1980s, as had been previously planned.
"We cannot merely take plans designed to deal with problems that existed 20 years ago and hope we end up with a super airport," said Mustafa El-Nashar, a Cairo University aviation economics professor. "It is too late for that now."
The critics also said that despite a four-year comprehensive renovation project, Cairo International Airport is still unable to properly serve Cairo, let alone keep up with the increased air traffic coming into Egypt. The only way to truly fulfil aviation officials' plans to develop the airport into a successful regional hub, they said, would be to build an entirely new airport, featuring completely separate navigation facilities. The new airport should also be on the other side of the city, to the west of Cairo.
According to El-Nashar, the current airport's location in crowded Heliopolis, with its major traffic woes, was one of the main problems. Aviation authorities, on the other hand, said that several recently completed roads and bridges providing travellers with alternate routes from the airport into downtown have helped.
El-Nashar said that roads were not enough. "Thanks to the constant building violations in Heliopolis and Nasr City, the airport has also lost at least two important navigation passages, disqualifying certain heavy aircraft from using them."
El-Nashar warned that, "aviation officials should think twice before acting, especially when an important body like the World Bank trusts the sector and is ready to fund its development plans."
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 4 - 10 December 2003 (Issue No. 667)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/667/eg3.htm