Cairo International Airport, Egypt

Getting There:

The airport is located 15km from the central area in the North East, just after Heliopolis. If there's no traffic it should take you about 20 or 30 minutes but traffic is pretty common and it could therefore take you at least an hour, a taxi to the airport should cost no more than 30 Egyptian pounds but some people will try to charge you as much as 200!

Arriving at the airport is quite a different experience from departing there and you may find that someone already has hold of your luggage in an attempt for you to go with them in their taxi or simply to carry it for some backsheesh, this can be annoying and the airport actually has its own fixed prices for taxis that can be as low as 45 EGP and even with a luxury car will only cost 65EGP, stay calm and take control of the situation, you are not forced to do anything and con men like to take advantage of people's arrivals in the middle of the night!

Customs:

Travellers may have their own thoughts about Egyptian soldiers since the current troubles but the guys at customs in the airport, have a permanently stoned smile and whilst they might have sub machine guns or rifles, they come across as a cheerful bunch. In fact it's very straight forward to pass through customs and what initially looks like a rather disorganised system soon becomes rather clear.

General Airport Info:

Cairo Airport is one of, if not the biggest airport in Africa, you can visit just about any African destination, Arab destination, the majority of Europe as well as several Asian cities. It's surprisingly a cheap airport to fly from and if you shop around in Downtown Cairo, you can find some great deals, even to Australia.

Terminal 1 traditionally covered all Egypt Air flights and is often referred to as the old airport, even though it had a complete overhaul and left Terminal 2 and 3 biting the dust. Terminal 2 is almost one year through a three year renovation plan and is therefore closed, the international flights with services like KLM and Air France have since been moved from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. Egypt Air and the Arab air-carriers have found themselves in Terminal 3, which itself has been improved upon and now boasts a large food-court complete with Burger King.

Cairo International Airport does have a limited amount of shops but there's enough choice to buy basics such as perfume, cigarettes, newspapers, food and drink.

Airport Tax:

Egypt had an airport tax until around 2005, since then it's been included in the price of the tickets.