With the inauguration of Terminal 3 at Cairo Airport early next year, Star Alliance carriers will execute the move under one roof concept in one of the most modern airports in the region."
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The above is only my opinion , it is entirely possible that I could be wrong ( it happened once before )
On Friday's Al Ahram front page, there was a picture of the president touring T3. Haven't had time to read the details though. Will do so and report what actually happened.
AFAIK-the first flight to move will be the JFK, followed by domestics, followed by international flights.
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I'm in Cairo now. And I arrived from Tokyo at the old Terminal 1 last night. I did ask about the new terminal and was told that yes it's open.. BUT flights will be slowly transferred as of 2 months from now.
From what I experienced with the luggage handlers last night, having a brand new terminal isn't going to improve Egyptair or any other airline partners using it if the basic infrastructure fails at the very base of it all.
What did they do? I'll save the juicy bits of Egyptair in my trip report eventually , but last night after we landed and had cleared immigration, about half of the luggage still had not come out. A quick glance around the conveyor belt revealed that it was mostly the people with Priority * Alliance labels on. The F, C and Elite customers. After much shouting and commotion by airline personnel, it was discovered that the baggage handlers had emptied their baggage containers as fast as they could so that they could all go see their favourite football heroes (who happened to be on my flight) who were giving a status report at the domestic terminal (they were whisked away by a special convoy while us regular F and J passengers were herded like cattle into cramped buses) ..... The baggage handlers however, forgot two containers with the all PRIORITY luggage in it, that still needed offloading !
Crap! Well although CAI (possibly) will have the infrastructure to be a *A hub, ground works needs to improve. Applying bureaucratic methods isn't going to help the situation either. Am flying out in two days' time and will also see what the deal with T3 is.
AFAIK-Al Ahly team was in Tokyo and had recently lost the match anyway. Dunno why they were so excited....
Meanwhile looking forward to the TR.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by directorguy_
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AFAIK-Al Ahly team was in Tokyo and had recently lost the match anyway. Dunno why they were so excited....
Meanwhile looking forward to the TR.
No, apparently they won. That was why all the hoop-la on the tarmac, and there was some sort of trophy. Looked like a plastic red rooster in a plexiglass casing...
They got 3rd place and IMO Al Ahly is overhyped and failed to deliver well at the Tokyo games. The baggage handlers would have been excited if Al Ahly got 10th place or 1st place.
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I flew out of CAI T2 (i.e. the terminal immediately adjacent to T3) on the morning of Thursday 18 December 2008. Although at the time I wasn't aware of what was going on (although a Star Alliance plane parked at T3 did arouse my interest), President Hosni Mubarak did indeed visit T3 that day. See here:
Flying as I do 6-8 times a year into CAI T2 with BA I've got to say it's the only major terminal in the world I've arrived at where - even if you are first off the plane - your bags are on the conveyor belt before you reach the baggage reclaim hall.
For the record Al-Ahly, who qualified by virtue of being Winners of the CAF Champions League 2008, finished sixth overall (losing the play-off match for fifth place on 18 December 2008 in Yokohama, Japan - they certainly didn't finish 3rd!) in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup.
Was flzing ZRH-CAI-LXR on MS last sunday, and as ZRH-CAI was a codeshare operated by LX, the flight arrived at T2. The connecting flight started at T1 domestic terminal.
I don't tell how many taxi drivers offered their service while I was waiting for the transfer bus (the cheapest offer was about 4 EUR) and how many of them told me that the bus will come in one hour / half an hour / not at all.
T1 domestic wasn't that comfortable, there is no lounge. I just got a voucher for one (1!) coffee, while I had to pay all the consecutive ones, 20 EGP (ca. 3 EUR) per cup
I flew out of CAI T2 (i.e. the terminal immediately adjacent to T3) on the morning of Thursday 18 December 2008. Although at the time I wasn't aware of what was going on (although a Star Alliance plane parked at T3 did arouse my interest), President Hosni Mubarak did indeed visit T3 that day. See here:
Flying as I do 6-8 times a year into CAI T2 with BA I've got to say it's the only major terminal in the world I've arrived at where - even if you are first off the plane - your bags are on the conveyor belt before you reach the baggage reclaim hall.
For the record Al-Ahly, who qualified by virtue of being Winners of the CAF Champions League 2008, finished sixth overall (losing the play-off match for fifth place on 18 December 2008 in Yokohama, Japan - they certainly didn't finish 3rd!) in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup.
Ah well...just goes to show that not all Egyptians keep track of Al Ahly
CAI T2 may have quick ground handling, but the insanely small baggage reclaim area is a turn-off.
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