Cairo International Airport

Cairo International is the busiest airport in Egypt and the second-busiest in Africa after Johannesburg, handling roughly 30M passengers (2024) and serving as the home hub of flag carrier EgyptAir — a Star Alliance member and one of the oldest airlines in Africa and the Middle East, operating since 1932. CAI sits 15 km (9 mi) northeast of central Cairo on 37 sq km (14 sq mi) of desert terrain at 322 ft (98 m) elevation, functioning as the primary African-Middle Eastern transfer point on Star Alliance's network. EgyptAir anchors the hub with around 70 destinations across four continents, supplemented by a dense lineup of Gulf carriers (Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Saudia, flydubai), European majors (Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, ITA Airways, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot), African carriers feeding into the Cairo transit complex, and intra-regional operators covering the Levant and North Africa. The route network reaches 127 destinations across 65 airlines — the third-widest airline count in Africa after Johannesburg and Addis Ababa. Three parallel runways (13,124 ft / 4,000 m, 13,123 ft / 4,000 m, 10,827 ft / 3,300 m) and four passenger terminals (T1, T2, T3, T4 Shuttle) handle traffic at a site that spans 37 sq km (14 sq mi). Terminal 3, opened in 2009 and exclusively used by EgyptAir and Star Alliance, is connected to T1 by the Automated People Mover Shuttle. Terminal 2 was fully rebuilt in 2016, and a Terminal 4 (handling 30M passengers annually) is under construction under a Build-Operate-Transfer concession, scheduled to open by 2027 and bring total capacity above 55M. CAI also hosts one of the largest airline MRO facilities in the region at EgyptAir Maintenance & Engineering.