Ministers of Civil Aviation and Tourism inaugurated on Tuesday passenger terminal 2 at Hurghada International Airport after increasing its capacity to 7.5 million passengers annually which comes in line with the growing number of tourist arrivals to Hurghada. The new terminal comes also in line with the strategy set by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to develop Egyptian airports to cope with the rapid growth in the air transport industry and the continuous increase in air traffic to and from Egypt. Minister of Civil Aviation, Younis El Masry, said the opening of the terminal comes after conducting several test operations, mentioning that modern security devices have been installed in the terminal. El Masry added that the new terminal has 11 departure gates connected to aircrafts by direct bridges along with nine exit gates for remote aircrafts by buses. "The new building has 72 counters for booking departures and receiving bags, in addition to two counters for large luggage service," the minister added. "The baggage handling area has also been developed for departing passengers and it adopted an automatic transmission system with six conveyor belts to carry passenger bags, in addition to nine electric conveyors to pick up passengers' luggage," he added. He concluded that the airport provides regular services to Cairo, offers direct flights to many European destinations, and tends to more than 40 different airlines. Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat expressed her appreciation for the great efforts by the ministry of civil aviation in developing Egyptian airports, pointing out its importance in upgrading the level of service provided to passengers and increasing the competitiveness of Egyptian airports globally. The minister stressed the importance of the city of Hurghada, as it is one of the most attractive Egyptian tourist cities, noting that there are many trips that go directly to Hurghada city, especially since Hurghada airport serves many other cities including El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, Safaga, and El Qusayr. She assured that the development of this building will contribute to increase the capacity of the airport to receive more tourists and travellers.
