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Al-Ahram Weekly Published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 05 - 01 - 2011

Aviation Minister Hussein Massoud resumed official activities after a long halt due to the political crisis, visiting two regional airports in the Red Sea area. On Saturday, Massoud toured Sharm El-Sheikh airport in southern Sinai, where he held several meetings with the employees, management representatives and local officials.
The visit aimed to inspect the sequence of work at the new expansion project of the airport. A new terminal building is to be added to Sharm El-Sheikh airport which currently consists of two terminals.
According to Massoud, the project which is yet to start construction work, will take the total capacity of the airport to 18 million passenger per annum. "The existing facilities of Sharm El-Sheikh airport should handle 7.5 million passengers every year," explained Massoud. "Yet, due to high traffic to Red Sea resorts, the airport is currently over capacity, receiving 8.5 million passengers in a latest year," Massoud added.
Sharm El-Sheikh airport added a second terminal building in May 2007, a fascinating state-of-the-art facility which expanded the airport's capacity to 7.5 million, but within three years, the traffic jumped from 5 million to 8.5 million passengers per annum.
"The new terminal building, under construction, adds 10 million passengers to the total capacity of airport. It should be constructed and ready to serve the traffic in 2016," explained Hassan Rashed, chairman of the Holding Company for Airports who joined the tour along with his deputy Wael El-Maadwi.
A few days earlier, Massoud and his aids paid a visit to another airport at the Red Sea area in Hurghada. According to Rashed, Sharm El-Sheikh airport received 75 flights carrying some 12,000 tourists from Eastern and Western Europe.
As for Hurghada, the airport with its old facility received 9,500 tourists who arrived to celebrate the New Year and Christmas. A new terminal building is under construction at present to expand the capacity of Hurghada airport. Rashed indicated the new facility should be completed within two years.

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