I'd like to book a positioning flight into the same terminal that EK uses, to avoid entering Egypt and moving between terminals.

According to the airport website EK uses terminal 2, according to other sources this terminal is under construction and EK uses terminal 1.

Any info? And if it's 2 - is there airside transfer area between 2 and 1? I'm looking into arriving with RJ... Thanks.

Not familiar with EK's ops at Cairo, I do believe T2 is the new terminal, not sure if its open yet. I've only flown in and out of T3 with MS.

I have heard however (not sure where so don't treat this as confirmed) that there is a shuttle bus between terminals (possibly landside but you can skip immigration to take it if you have an onward ticket to show). I've had 2 long transits in CAI where I've been in the MS complimentary transit hotel which is landside but with no visa or stamp, they simply confiscate your passport, so immigration does seem open to some shady skipping back and forth kind of deal. When going through passport control on departure you just tell the guy who checks stamps that you're a transit pax and he doesn't check further, despite you not showing any evidence of such, so it does seem like a lot of holes in their immigration net.

I've transited between 1 and 3 a couple of times (all Star Alliance use 3, and out of that reason i don't want to position with A3, for example, which is much cheaper than RJ). It's not pleasant to say the least, even considering the shuttle bus and the new people mover and Le Meridien.
And i'd never leave my passport to them ) It's not about paying the visa fee, it's about not having to exit into this hell.
Well, hopefully anyone will be able to clarify this. Pretty sure many of FT'ers jumped on E fares ex-CAI.

It is open with only a few airlines using it at the moment. It had a soft opening in November 16 and I think some of the OW airlines are using it along with KU & SV.

Looking at the CAI airport website and the arrivals information, it is still showing that EK flights are arriving at T1.

S

So i've asked both airlines directly.

EK operates term 1
RJ operates term 2

Is there any chance of connection without having to enter Egypt?

Finding a total lack of information online, I think worst case scenario is that you will have to do a landside transfer.

Lokk at post #16 &#27 in this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...2-cairo-2.html. It looks as if there is an APM that allows airside to airside transfer and is situated at T2/T3 for transits to T1. How it works in practice is another thing.

S

Long time lurker finally signing up!

I recently took a positioning flight on MS from DXB to CAI which landed at Terminal 3. I can confirm EK departs from Terminal 1 at CAI.

To transfer from T3 to T1, you need to go to the MS transfer desk in T3 and ask them to arrange a minivan to take you across to T1. They were somewhat confused and thought it was very weird that I wanted to fly straight back to DXB - I eventually explained it as a visa run.

When you get to T1, you will get to a transit immigration officer. You need to give him a copy of your ticket (you cannot print out your OLCI pass) and he will call someone at EK to come and collect your passport (you leave it at the desk) and provide your onward boarding pass and stamp a transit stamp in your passport (no fees). The transit officer was helpful although was also a bit confused as to why I was travelling straight back to Dubai.

Although it was not made clear, once your passport is left at the transit desk awaiting collection by EK, you are free to explore T1 (it is, unfortunately, a dump) and return a bit later to collect your passport and boarding pass.

Unfortunately the MS flight was considerably delayed which meant that I just missed the connection on EK back to DXB (especially sad as I had received an opup to F). Having said that, the EK staff at CAI were very friendly and simply booked me onto the next flight with no charge, even though I was on a J Flex ticket.

On a more general note, I should point out that Emirates are now heavily limiting availability of cheap fares ex-CAI through the use of married segment logic to Asia - lots of J tickets simply won't price apart from in expensive Flex Plus fares.

They have also considerably increased the price of CAI to USA premium class tickets on 30 December. Returns in J were previously available for less than EGP30k, now they cannot be found for less than EGP40k+.

Hope this helps.

What's wrong with a night in Cairo?

Have you been?

Yeah and I'd spend the night if I was going to take advantage of the current situation. The four seasons is nice.

Yeah as long as you don't leave the hotel

I had a great trip to the pyramids and the museum - was with a driver/guide but all good.

Clearly a better driver than I had in November.

I received notification from Emirates that my upcoming flights at the start of Feb to/from CAI have now moved to Terminal 2. Hopefully the transit experience remains reasonably straightforward.

Good news that EK is moving over to T2, hopefully it will be nicer than T1.

Perhaps you can update us after your trip, also on the transit situation?