The Ministry of Civil Aviation and British airline company Icon are set to finish reviewing plans to construct a new ‘airport city' on 2288 acres of land at Cairo airport by mid-April, according to Minister of Civil Aviation Wail al-Madawi. Investments for the project are estimated to have reached $20 billion. Al-Madawi added that the plans include a number of restaurants and hotels, intended to accommodate future expansions in Cairo airport's passenger capacity, which is expected to reach 70 million. The Ministry stated that, once the plans have been reviewed, they will seek to construct similar projects near the Burg al-Arab airport in Alexandria and around the Port Said airport. In a meeting held on 10 March with the Shura Council's Transportation Committee, Al-Madawi said that a 10 year plan had been presented regarding the implementation of similar projects in other parts of the country. He added that the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), on concluding the review, planned to build a passenger reception hall for the airport capable of hosting an expected three million passengers at an expected cost of EGP 180 million, in addition to an additional aeroplane corridor at a cost of EGP 120 million. He went on to say that plans have been made to build a third terminal in Cairo Airport over a period of 2 years at an estimated cost of EGP 2 billion, in an attempt to raise the airport's overall passenger capacity from 22 million to 30 million per year. The African Development Fund (ADF) agreed to loan the Egyptian government $360 million to construct an additional reception hall in the Sharm El-Sheikh airport, with the capacity to host 10 million passengers yearly, on condition that Egypt first accepts its pending IMF loan. Madawi said that a third reception hall would also be constructed at Hurghada Airport in the coming year at a cost of $1.7 billion. The hall will have the capacity to host 7.5 million passengers yearly. He added that a committee would be formed to help restructure EgyptAir's company losses, which totaled EGP 6 billion in the last six years, including EGP 650 million in losses over the last two months alone as a result of inflation and the rising price of the dollar. The committee would consist of the President of Egyptian Airports Company, the Vice President of Egypt's Central Bank, and two economics professors from the American University of Cairo. He pointed out, however, that despite these setbacks Egypt's aviation sector had reaped EGP 524 million in profits over the previous year. Madawi concluded by saying that he had turned down a number of offers from various companies to rent the Port Said airport, due to its significance in regional development.
