http://www.egyptindependent.com/sphinx-international-airport-to-begin-experimental-operation-in-january/

Egypt’s new Sphinx International Airport (SPX), which lays on the outskirts of Cairo is set to start “experimental operation” in January, Minister of Civil Aviation Sherif Fathy told the House of Representatives’ Tourism and Civil Aviation Committee on Wednesday.

Does anyone have any information re i) the above "experiemental operation" which began last month, ii) SPX's likely effective opening date and iii) any anticipated flight transfers from CAI, be it from MS or other carriers serving Cairo?

The terminal building seems to be modelled on the one in Borg El Arab International Airport HBE albeit with a fresher façade...probably SPX is designed for a like passenger capacity...


Faro

Egypt built a new airport so tourists can shave off 20 minutes of driving time to the pyramids?

phatfarmlines wrote:

Egypt built a new airport so tourists can shave off 20 minutes of driving time to the pyramids?

With Cairo's metropolitan area being home to more than 20 million people, I imagine a second airport isn't too ludicrous an idea...

V/F

i don't understand the point of this airport . it's not really needed they should've just expanded CAI instead

Interesting... SPX used to be the code for Spaceland Airport in Houston by the Johnson space center

OGLOBAL wrote:

i don't understand the point of this airport . it's not really needed they should've just expanded CAI instead

Given that Egypt tourism has suffered in the last several years.. it is odd they chose to open this.

The current leadership since 2014 has invested a lot in 'new' projects....a new capital city (Cairo will no longer be the capital in a few short years), a new Suez Canal (just a partially parallel waterway) and tons of highways and flyover u-turns on said highways. You can add airports to the list-Cairo West, or the gimmicky name Sphinx International, Cairo East on the other side of Cairo, plus a future airport for the new capital.

The new SPX is marginally closer to the Pyramids/Giza/Sphinx/Grand Egyptian Museum integrated complex than CAI. Plus it serves a decent catchement area (rich suburbs of Greater Cairo). A few routes to JED, KWI, DXB plus Egyptian domestic destinations would be easily filled. Beyond that, I don't see any airline launching a flight just so pax can deplane at SPX, spend the day, then fly out again. Nor does MS have any plans in the long-term to move anything. SPX which will at best be a secondary airport serving niche markets.

directorguy wrote:

The current leadership since 2014 has invested a lot in 'new' projects....a new capital city (Cairo will no longer be the capital in a few short years), a new Suez Canal (just a partially parallel waterway) and tons of highways and flyover u-turns on said highways. You can add airports to the list-Cairo West, or the gimmicky name Sphinx International, Cairo East on the other side of Cairo, plus a future airport for the new capital.

The new SPX is marginally closer to the Pyramids/Giza/Sphinx/Grand Egyptian Museum integrated complex than CAI. Plus it serves a decent catchement area (rich suburbs of Greater Cairo). A few routes to JED, KWI, DXB plus Egyptian domestic destinations would be easily filled. Beyond that, I don't see any airline launching a flight just so pax can deplane at SPX, spend the day, then fly out again. Nor does MS have any plans in the long-term to move anything. SPX which will at best be a secondary airport serving niche markets.

The ‘new’ projects all have one common theme running through them: big, physical works that can be seen and touched...a primal sense of achievement that still appeals to many Egyptians...

Not to say that these new airports will not be of benefit...but in the longer term, when for example tourism picks up again to pre-2011 levels...and that may take a while...in the interim I suppose it will indeed be LCC Gulf flights and Hajj mostly just like HBE...although one was hoping for a modicum of MS flights too, and a couple of foreign airlines...


Faro

Between leisure traffic (if it's so close to the attractions) and the wealthy passenger Cairo suburbs one shouldn't be surprised that U2 would be interested to fly at least a couple of days per week from LTN, STN or LGW there.

1. Ideally MS could start JED, MED, KWI plus HRG SSH LXR and ASW. They could go for a W routing like CAI-JED-SPX-JED-CAI.
Unfortunately EgyptAir is very much Cairo Air as they barely have any flights out of other domestic cities (except to Cairo). So we'll see.
One solution would be to build highways between SPX and the heavily populated Delta regions. But this is wishful thinking again.

It's quite a bit more than saving 20min of drive time - it's saving a drive across the entire city, as CAI lies to the Northeast and the Pyramids to the Southwest. It is also well placed to serve the suburbs Wests of the Nile, 6th of october etc. At 25 million people + tourists, the question is not if Cairo will need a second airport, but when. One could argue however, that this is too soon, given that CAI is a large airport with growth potential.

My greater concern is that this will enable day trips to the Pyramids, so that tourists can go take a selfie there, post it on instagram, and be back at their beach resort that same night, without ever setting a foot on (wonderful) Cairo or booking a hotel there. This is IMO not a desirable tourism strategy.

Any info as to when the works at Alexandria's ALY airport going to finish? Or HBE is going to continue being the sole commercial airport of the city?
Many thanks for all info.

Isn't Egypt building a huge new museum for the Pyramids?
https://blooloop.com/features/grand-egyptian-museum/

This is right there

r2rho wrote:

It's quite a bit more than saving 20min of drive time - it's saving a drive across the entire city, as CAI lies to the Northeast and the Pyramids to the Southwest. It is also well placed to serve the suburbs Wests of the Nile, 6th of october etc. At 25 million people + tourists, the question is not if Cairo will need a second airport, but when. One could argue however, that this is too soon, given that CAI is a large airport with growth potential.

My greater concern is that this will enable day trips to the Pyramids, so that tourists can go take a selfie there, post it on instagram, and be back at their beach resort that same night, without ever setting a foot on (wonderful) Cairo or booking a hotel there. This is IMO not a desirable tourism strategy.

If you're going to fly to Cairo, the time difference is really minimal between the two airports and the respective sites. Your second point is really key I think--Egypt's government has done just about anything and everything to destroy tourism, and now with this new airport, you can avoid Egypt altogether other than getting a photo at the Pyramids--when of course there is so much more to see and do. This new airport in my opinion is a huge net negative for CAI (airport) and Cairo as a city.

ALY is closed indefinitely. No word in years on what the future will be. HBE seems to be the major gateway for northern Egypt. The Alamein airport, around 140km west of Alexandria is functioning, and has seasonal weekend flights to CAI on MS.
The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

The only airport that serves a historical site is Abu Simbel, which was built right next to the Abu Simbel complex. You get on a plane in ASW, land in ABS 40 minutes later. A shuttle bus then takes passengers to the temple. Around 75 minutes later, the tourists get back on the bus to the airport for the flight back to Aswan. The flights (usually 2 roundtrips per day) are timed 2 hours between arriving and departing. However I fail to see anyone-MS or BA or U2, launching flights to SPX, spend 5-6 hours on the ground, and then take passengers back to Europe.

SPX shares runways with a military base, which should tell you everything you need to know about why it was built and who profits off of it. In Google maps, it looks like the terminal is quite small and has only a couple of gates, so it’s not that big a threat to CAI.

Antarius wrote:

OGLOBAL wrote:

i don't understand the point of this airport . it's not really needed they should've just expanded CAI instead

Given that Egypt tourism has suffered in the last several years.. it is odd they chose to open this.

It may have suffered, but those pyramids and sphinx are not going anywhere. With regional and national stability, the tourists will go back.If tourists' primary destination is the pyramids in Giza, why not fly them closer so that congestion and/or traffic can be alleviated at CAI? Maybe the charters can go here primarily.

Cairo has a population larger than that of London's, it can sustain multiple airports.

directorguy wrote:

The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

But about 2 hours plus driving time from CAI...I can see the logic of wanting a tourist-driven airport relatively close to Cairene touristic sites...but it may indeed encourage the kind of selfie-centric tourism culture that would lead to foreigners entirely bypassing urban Cairo...a little like the way Red Sea resorts presently enable them to experience a touristic Egypt that has little to do with the greater mass of Egyptians and their environment...


Faro

Faro wrote:

directorguy wrote:

The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

But about 2 hours plus driving time from CAI...I can see the logic of wanting a tourist-driven airport relatively close to Cairene touristic sites...but it may indeed encourage the kind of selfie-centric tourism culture that would lead to foreigners entirely bypassing urban Cairo...a little like the way Red Sea resorts presently enable them to experience a touristic Egypt that has little to do with the greater mass of Egyptians and their environment...


Faro

Perhaps they can work out charters/flights that will see them land in SPX, spend 2 or 3 days, then fly out from SPX to LXR or SSH or wherever.
Anyway, here are airlines/routes that are a possibility from SPX:
FZ-(flydubai) DXB/DWC-SPX.
XY(flynas) JED/MED/RUH-SPX. Lots of Egyptians living in Saudi Arabia, or going there for pilgrimage. Plus large number of Saudis who study in Cairo and own second homes, particularly in western Cairo.
MS (Egyptair) SPX-ASW via LXR/HRG/SSH. Would make a lot of sense even if only 3 flights a week.
E5 (Air Arabia Egypt )SPX-SAW/AMM/BEY/KWI/SHJ

Faro wrote:

directorguy wrote:

The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

But about 2 hours plus driving time from CAI...I can see the logic of wanting a tourist-driven airport relatively close to Cairene touristic sites...but it may indeed encourage the kind of selfie-centric tourism culture that would lead to foreigners entirely bypassing urban Cairo...a little like the way Red Sea resorts presently enable them to experience a touristic Egypt that has little to do with the greater mass of Egyptians and their environment...


Faro

The tourism potential is being hyped up a lot, but there is a lot of residential development in the Giza governorate (where SPX is) to attract middle class Egyptians who want to get out of the chaos of the urban core of Cairo-Giza-Shubra.

While the airport may be marketed as “close to the pyramids,” it’s going to be attractive to local residents who want to fly out without having to cross the city. Traffic, even at the best of times, is wildly unpredictable, which makes flying out of CAI without giving yourself a few hours’ head start (even for domestic flights) a risky proposition.

However I fail to see anyone-MS or BA or U2, launching flights to SPX, spend 5-6 hours on the ground, and then take passengers back to Europe.

It's not really about taking pax back to Europe, it's about taking pax from i.e. their Red Sea beach resorts and back within the day.

directorguy wrote:

Faro wrote:

directorguy wrote:

The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

But about 2 hours plus driving time from CAI...I can see the logic of wanting a tourist-driven airport relatively close to Cairene touristic sites...but it may indeed encourage the kind of selfie-centric tourism culture that would lead to foreigners entirely bypassing urban Cairo...a little like the way Red Sea resorts presently enable them to experience a touristic Egypt that has little to do with the greater mass of Egyptians and their environment...


Faro

Perhaps they can work out charters/flights that will see them land in SPX, spend 2 or 3 days, then fly out from SPX to LXR or SSH or wherever.
Anyway, here are airlines/routes that are a possibility from SPX:
FZ-(flydubai) DXB/DWC-SPX.
XY(flynas) JED/MED/RUH-SPX. Lots of Egyptians living in Saudi Arabia, or going there for pilgrimage. Plus large number of Saudis who study in Cairo and own second homes, particularly in western Cairo.
MS (Egyptair) SPX-ASW via LXR/HRG/SSH. Would make a lot of sense even if only 3 flights a week.
E5 (Air Arabia Egypt )SPX-SAW/AMM/BEY/KWI/SHJ

Would make a lot of sense, yes. Tourism is hurting in a major way but once it starts to increase the infrastructure would be there...

And ultimately, in the long-term one may envisage substantial direct LCC activity to major Europeans destinations...but that would depend to a great extent on how much commercial protection the Egyptian government is disposed to provide MS...


Faro

khowaga wrote:

Faro wrote:

directorguy wrote:

The idea of linking the Pyramids (which will include the Pyramids, Sphinx, and the upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum) with an airport just so tourists can visit is a bit of wishful thinking. SPX is around 30 minutes driving time from the Pyramids.

But about 2 hours plus driving time from CAI...I can see the logic of wanting a tourist-driven airport relatively close to Cairene touristic sites...but it may indeed encourage the kind of selfie-centric tourism culture that would lead to foreigners entirely bypassing urban Cairo...a little like the way Red Sea resorts presently enable them to experience a touristic Egypt that has little to do with the greater mass of Egyptians and their environment...


Faro

The tourism potential is being hyped up a lot, but there is a lot of residential development in the Giza governorate (where SPX is) to attract middle class Egyptians who want to get out of the chaos of the urban core of Cairo-Giza-Shubra.

While the airport may be marketed as “close to the pyramids,” it’s going to be attractive to local residents who want to fly out without having to cross the city. Traffic, even at the best of times, is wildly unpredictable, which makes flying out of CAI without giving yourself a few hours’ head start (even for domestic flights) a risky proposition.

Oddly, SPX’s main immediate benefit may be to shorten driving times. I recall when I would regularly use CAI that the transit time to the pyramids on my way to Alexandria was not less than 2.5 hours in the evenings...it will very greatly benefit Giza and Ma3adi residents...


Faro