Hey guys!
We’ve all been hearing stuff about the new Terminal 3 at Cairo International Airport. As an aviation enthusiast, I kept track of all the developments associated with it. A couple of weeks ago, when booking tickets for summer travel, I was delighted to know that T3 would be open by late June-perfect for me.
When booking my tickets on Expedia, I selected Egyptair for Cairo-Dubai-Cairo. Normally I would have preferred Qatar Airways, Gulf Air or Emirates, but the price on Egyptair wasn’t unreasonable so I went with that.



MS 912
CAI-DXB
Cairo International Airport, Arab Republic of Egypt-Dubai International Airport, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Scheduled/Actual Time Departure: 1000/1011 (Takeoff 1020)
Scheduled/Actual Time Arrival: 1445/ 1432
Flying Time 3 hours 12 minutes
Aircraft: A330-200
Aircraft registration: SU-GCI


Woke up at 0500 in time for a shower and a nice cup of coffee. The plan was to move at 0630 and we did just that. By 0730 we were close to the airport and it was now a matter of following the signs. I bet everyone in Egypt is going to struggle with calling the new facility Terminal 3. Since there’s no word for Terminal in Arabic, the closest you get is ‘Passenger Building’. But since time immemorial, Terminal 1 is the ‘Old Airport’ while Terminal 2 is the ‘New Airport’. Over time, T1 got renovated to become a rather pleasant facility while T2 remained a dingy facility. Nothing ‘new’ about it. One of the many paradoxes to be found in Egypt. Perhaps T3 will end up being ‘the Very New Terminal’?

We were at Terminal 3 by 0740, and I was pleased to see that getting there wasn’t too difficult. Finally, the exterior resembled the newer Terminal 2 facilities at Paris-CDG than an outmoded terminal dating from the 1960s.

Exterior








Line up of Egyptair:



Egyptair A321:




Terminal 3 was easy to navigate for first time users, and it was easy to see that there was a lot of space. We passed through pre check-in security, and then made our way to check-in.

Terminal pre-security:





They had eliminated the ‘common check-in’, with each flight (or set of flights) getting its own space. New York had an entire island of counters, while Abu Dhabi/Dubai/Doha got their own island.

Check-in:











Self-check in:



Dubai counters:



Check-in was empty that morning, and our agent was a pleasant and affable one. We checked-in with no qualms whatsoever, and were assigned seats 29 H& K on the A330-200. The agent even put one of the smaller bags in a large tray so that it would not lose direction on the luggage belt.

New York check-in






More check-in area photos:





Departures info screen:



After check-in, we got to passport control and had to fill out the usual forms. It’s an annoying procedure, and one I would like to see eliminated.

Boarding Pass:



Immigration:



After immigration, we were finally airside. The first thing we checked out was the Duty Free. It had been expanded, enlarged and made easy to navigate. There was the usual plethora of cigarettes, fragrances, chocolates and jewellery. There were some stands bearing world-famous brands (e.g. Chopard etc.) but they were empty. Upon inquiry, we were told that ‘the Swiss were being difficult and taking their time in sending over the merchandise’.






Here are some nice Egyptair models. The small ones were for $13 and the large ones for $55 or roundabouts. Needless to say, I couldn’t help myself!





After Duty Free, we went to sit in the café area. There were several places, can’t remember them all (except I know for sure that there was a Hardees) but they weren’t the usual one croissant-one coffee eateries. If I was a traveller from, say, Guangzhou to Paris and I was stopping in Cairo, finally, I’d be tempted to eat something that isn’t McDonalds!

Here’s an example-Hippopotamus. Never heard of it before but it looked okay:



I had a nice croissant filled with cheese and ham, and some coffee. The staff taking my order was extremely inefficient, and I had to tell them several times that I didn’t want milk! It took 3 languages, and 3 coffees (yes, three!) to convince them that I wanted it black. Finally! While the food was great, and the price reasonable (LE 40 or $7 USD) service was sluggish and staff inexperienced.

While eating, I did some plane-spotting. The seating area is nice for this purpose, but the blue-tinted glass just ruined everything.

Here are some pics:



Egyptair in Star Alliance colours:



Egyptair A330-200 (SU-GBO):



Incoming Egyptair in new livery:



My A330-200, SU-GCI:



British Airways BA 154 behind an MS A340:




Horus meets Union Jack:



BA 747:




New and old Egyptair liveries:



Tails from the left and right concourses:



Star Alliance and new Egyptair liveries:




Incoming airplane:




Finally, it was time to go to the gate. Now, Terminal 3 (International) is split into two Fingers/Concourses at opposite ends of the same concourse. We were in the G gates (G4) and it was quite a large facility. The toilets weren’t sparkling but there are more of them scattered throughout the terminal, and that in itself was a good thing. Each Gate had its own seating area, and for once, there was an oversupply of seats (it was a half empty A330 but in the old Terminal each gate had enough space for a regional jet).

The concourse where the G gates are:



An Egyptair Plus (FFP) promo stand:



Signage (I see they’ve retained the ugly yellow ones as homage):



The concourse:



Some artwork (whatever):





At the gate, our carry-ons were screened. For the first time in the history of Egyptian aviation, they took this seriously. Our water bottles were confiscated, and our bags thoroughly searched. My mom’s perfume was also confiscated, but it was returned to her during the flight (nice touch!).
The gate area was large, spacious and clean, and at around 0940 we began boarding the A330-200. It took a long time, mainly because at the door an officer checked each passenger’s immigration stamp. Now, I tried to be helpful by having it open, but he accidently closed the passport and he had too look for it all over again.


Before boarding, I took those pics:







Bridge which leads to the Departures level:




Egyptair Express (I think domestic flights still use remote stands):




The A330-200 was quite empty, and we found ourselves in 29 H/K in no time at all. We settled in, and fastened our seat belts for departure

On the ground, a male steward came around with those sticky sweets they always have on offer, and soon the safety video began.
While waiting for takeoff, I managed to snap pics of an MEA incoming from Beirut:



Bigger:



Closer, but unfortunately I was a split second too late:



After a boring 10 minutes or so, we took off and I could relish the vibrating engines on the magnificent A330-200. It soared high into the sky, basking in the glorious Egyptian sun, courtesy of Horus, the Egyptian sun god.

After takeoff:











The flight was pretty uneventful. Cabin crew were as usual pretty boring. The flight was full of those blond bimbo types the airline likes to hire, and of course those senior ladies who are an ode of the pre-jet age, but still insist on blond streaks in their hair. I find that the best cabin crew members on Egyptair are the male, middle-aged stewards. They’re pleasant, interesting and like to communicate with passengers. But cabin crew is not the airline’s forte, and in general I don’t think that Egyptian culture stresses too much on hospitality-at least in commercial terms. Most Egyptians tend to be friendly, but that doesn’t always translate into SQ-level service.

The food. Oh my God, the food. I have stopped caring, or trying, to come to terms with the food on MS. I don’t think they’ve changed the combinations since the 1990s. It’s always fish, or beef, or chicken. There’s always undercooked/burnt rice involved, accented by a topping of soggy vegetables.
Now, I once opted for the ‘seafood’ and I ended up with this:



But that was ‘seafood’. I made sure that by ‘fish’ they meant a fish fillet. Now, airlines don’t do fish very well, but I thought I’d give it a try:

Dirty cover:



The food:



I have never, and I repeat, ever, had fish that fatty. I was not aware fish could be layered with so much fat. It was revolting because I wasn’t expecting it.

My seat mate the beef:



Suspect dessert:



Terrible, just terrible. Egyptair has a lot to do to improve its catering. It should start by
a) offering menus to passengers that describe each entrée in detail, instead of the vague fish/chicken/meat offerings.
b) Being more creative. Yes. The world does not revolve around the usual one meat-two veggie routine (or however it goes). There are so many ingredients, and so many combinations to choose from, to reflect the diversity of Egyptair’s network.


After the meal, I returned to my book and finally, it was time for our descent into Dubai. The A330-200 came into Dubai quite high up, and had to circle to land at DXB:




I couldn’t take many photos-it was too hazy to spot anything:

Even at 2 pm, Emirates has a large departure bank at its hub. It was nevertheless exciting.







Goodbye Egyptair!




So what did I think of T3?
Well, it was a well-designed building. The pink exterior repulsed me at first, but as a passenger I’m not going to care very much what’s on the outside. The interior had high ceilings, and looked as polished as Suvanabhmi, or Changi. There was plenty of seating, and despite checking-in during the busiest time of the day, I didn’t feel the pressure because it didn’t feel crowded. Check-in counters were grouped instead of having common counters. While this posed no problems today, it could be an inefficient system at certain times, if say the counters devoted to the Benghazi flight are relatively empty while the queue for the Rome flight is full the brim.
The Duty Free area was pleasant, and hopefully more buyers will go there once the issues with the Swiss suppliers are sorted out.
The seating area wasn’t packed, but there’s plenty of seating to be found. The blue-tinted windows were pointless. Obviously I’d love it if a separate viewing lounge was opened, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the future.
There was plenty of signage, and I didn’t feel lost at all. There was a separate channel for Transit pax. Finally, at long last, transiting through Cairo will be an easy experience and passengers will no longer need to be herded through that weird pen they have at Terminal 1.
There were plenty of toilets around. They could be cleaner, but you no longer have to trek a few hundred metres to find one.
It remains to be seen what passport control, and baggage reclaim on arrival are like. I can only hope that they are as efficient on arrival as they were on departure.

To get an idea of the Terminal design, it’s almost U shaped, with the bottom line being the main building with check-in, duty free etc. The two lines jutting out are the Concourses. The left line has the H International gates, and the left line houses the G international gates. The domestic flights (all leaving from F gates) are probably remote gates, on another level.
There’s a design blueprint in the airline magazine, which I’ll take and scan on my return flight.

So far, well done Cairo!

Thank you for reading my TR! Hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I haven’t rambled on for too long. Any feedback would be appreciated!