Egypt airport strategy: Leveraging public-private partnerships and smart technology
The programme aligns with the government’s FY2024/2025–FY2026/2027 plan, announced in July 2024, which seeks to strengthen strategic partnerships and attract foreign investment in civil aviation.
This includes developing investment zones at Egyptian airports and transforming them into smart airports to enhance passenger experience and streamline travel.
The strategy involves studying international best practices in airport operations and applying those suitable for Egypt, while increasingly outsourcing airport management to private operators to boost revenue and service quality.
It also focuses on improving operational efficiency across companies affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and restructuring the National Aviation Company of Egypt and its subsidiaries.
Hurghada Airport: First step
Hurghada International Airport marks the first project under this strategy. The state plans to involve the private sector in operating 11 airports nationwide to improve service, raise efficiency, and accommodate growing travel and tourism demand.
Speaking to Ahram Online, economic expert Bilal Shoaib said the move is particularly significant in light of Egypt’s State Ownership Policy document.
Over the past decade, the state directly implemented large-scale infrastructure projects, spending over EGP 10 trillion, as these initiatives offered limited appeal to the private sector due to low returns and high risk.
He said the current phase marks a shift to a model that gives the private sector operational and investment responsibility, aligned with the State Ownership Policy’s goal of raising its share of economic activity to around 60–65 percent.
As per Shoaib, public-private partnerships in airport operations have become essential, given the need for significant additional investment to modernize security systems, technological infrastructure, passenger facilities, surveillance systems, and other requirements of modern international airports.
“Instead of the state shouldering these costs alone, the private sector is brought in as an investment and operating partner,” he said.
Civil Aviation Minister Sameh El-Hefny said the selection of Hurghada Airport as the first project under the programme was deliberate. The airport is Egypt’s second-busiest in terms of air traffic and a key tourism gateway on the Red Sea.
He expects the partnership to increase capacity, improve service quality, and attract more international flights, while maintaining full state ownership of the assets.
Official data highlight this growth: Hurghada Airport handled over 10.5 million passengers in 2024–2025, a 22 percent increase year-on-year, while total passenger traffic across all Egyptian airports surpassed 50 million on nearly 400,000 flights.
Wael Zaeir, a member of the Egyptian Tourism Chambers Federation, said developing Hurghada Airport is a pivotal step toward doubling the tourism capacity of the Red Sea region.
He stressed that the move is part of a broader, integrated approach rather than a standalone project.
Speaking to Ahram Online, Zaeir said the strategy includes expanding hotel capacity, improving tourist transport, and completing road and bridge networks, about 95 percent of which are already finished, creating a major improvement in tourism mobility nationwide.
He added that the state is also working to double the capacity of all airports nationwide, focusing on major tourism destinations such as Hurghada, Sharm El-Sheikh, Luxor, Aswan, Alamein, and Marsa Matrouh through comprehensive upgrades.
Moreover, at the core of this vision is Cairo International Airport’s Terminal 4 project, one of the most strategic initiatives to transform the airport infrastructure.