Cairo International Airport has got a fifth terminal building and Port Said airport is re-opened after being closed for 20 years. Amirah Ibrahim reports For the first time and after long years, Egyptian pilgrims who travel from Cairo airport to the holy lands in Saudi Arabia will get a civilised area where they can conduct their travel procedures. On Tuesday, Prime Minster Essam Sharaf accompanied with four cabinet members (Aviation Minister Lotfi Kamal, Transportation Minister Ali Zein Al-Abeidin, State Minister for Military Production, Ali Sabri and Information Minister Osamah Heikal) attended an official opening of the new terminal building. The new TB is set to be used during peak times and thus is known as the "seasonal terminal". "This includes mainly Omrah and Haj seasons," explained Aviation Minister Lotfi Kamal. "Egyptian pilgrims who perform the grand pilgrimage, the Hajj, include more than 100,000 pilgrims. EgyptAir transfers 80,000. This explains why the new terminal has been allocated for the national carrier's extra operation," Lotfi added. Being the government-owned flag carrier, EgyptAir is usually assigned to carry out the main flights throughout the country. During Omrah season and summer vacations when Egyptian employees abroad tend to return for family vacations, Cairo International is usually a mess. Even with a new terminal building in 2009 to operate its flights along with Star Alliance member airlines, Hajj and Omrah represent a big logistical problem for both the airport and the carrier. In the Hajj season, a huge tent appeared every year to receive pilgrims, who were banned along with their relatives from using the waiting area inside airport terminals. Instead they had to wait in the tent outside the terminal, be it freezing or hot weather, till the boarding time of their flights. But this is now about to be history. The new building is 1800 squared metres, consisting of the main building which includes departure and arrival halls and three other building for serving pilgrims. The departure hall is equipped with seven large waiting areas and seven gates, 27 check-in counters, six immigration counters and four entrances for passengers. The arrival hall is equipped with eight immigration counters and three custom gates. However and according to Hassan Rashed, chairman of the holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation,Tuesday's inauguration was just a soft opening where the performance of the whole facility is set to be thoroughly examined. "Today, a flight to Saudi Arabia's Medina city took off from the terminal. EgyptAir operates four flights a week to Medina; this allows us to review and examine all equipment during operation," explained Rashed. "We will maintain this soft operation with Medina flights till we are certain about every detail and then set the terminal to full operation before 18 October, the scheduled date to start Hajj flights." A new multi-stores garage has also been constructed next to the seasonal terminal to accommodate 3000 vehicles.
