I was looking at Thomson packages to the Red Sea via Taba airport.
It appears they have flights from Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham all landing with a short while of one another on a Tuesday evening, and return flights departing an hour later with just ten minutes between them.
Has anyone experienced this? Is it total chaos at Taba International?
I presume they do this to pool passengers for the coach transfers...
My understanding is that it is more to do with the airport - Taba is a military airport and therefore not like a resort airport which would be open x hours a day seven days a week. It would therefore keep down the costs for Thomson (or any other operator) to have their flights coming in close together. The hotels are so few and so close that it's easy to put a whole flight's worth on a few coaches and send them off to different hotels without having to wait for the other flights to fill them up. Certainly on our return there were separate coaches from our hotel for each flight. On the return we had to queue outside the airport to get in (there is a baggage scan just as you enter - where ALL luggage/hand luggage goes through) so best advice is to take a jumper/jacket as the sun will be setting and it will be chilly in the mountains!
Is it chaotic? Well, to be honest I found less confusing or hectic than most airports I've been to because there really is little chance of getting in the wrong queue and being in the wrong place! Yes it does get busy, you'll be in one of those long snaking queues (so er, bit like being at Gatwick!) and the facilities aren't great, but I do understand they have opened up another area for waiting passengers (don't expect it to be comfortable, just practical!).
In summary, nothing to worry about. Book it!
At least the major delay at Taba check-in is those scanners, they are usually quite quick cheking baggage because they have little boarding cards and baggage checks ready printed, no fussing about finding you a seat - first come first served...
It would be a new experience to see more than one or two planes on the ground though. And last year was a bit chaotic when our (LGW) flight boarded ahead of an earlier one to Budapest and no-one knew we were due to board because the tannoy messages were so garbled.
Just come back from Taba it was chaos on arrival at airport as 3 flights all landed at same time took approx an hour and a half to get through passport control that was before we even got our cases it was that bad that there was cases all over the floor of the baggage area!
However on return it was much better had to wait outside but we were through within half an hour and that was into waiting area! and again there was 3 planes waiting to come back.
Hope this helps
Marloiu flew into TAba yesterday on the 10am flight from Birmingham. She was already in the hotel when she phoned me at 4.45, so judging by the timings. I don't think they had much of a wait at the airport.
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