An hour?. YIKES!!!

Last time I did a transfer in Cairo (Hurghada-Cairo-LHR) some 16 months ago, we almost missed the London flight because of the ever-present chaos at Cairo. Only made it by literally pushing ourselves to the front of the queue at check in as there was no "TRANSFER" system available whatsoever. The international check in area is a mass of common-check in desks with an erratic queuing system. The check in staff were literally shouting out (those you could understand) "any more passengers for xxxx", so you left your queue , tripping over baggage and kids, to get to another queue with several pax more in front of you than you originally had. Pandemonium!! The same chaos applied at both security and immigration (exit cards, visa check,passports) and we made no friends there by barging our way to the front.We arrived at the gate five minutes AFTER scheduled departure time, but they were missing more passengers than us so we got on.....................

Our domestic flight landed almost 15 mins later than scheduled but we had over two hours between flights despite this and still almost misconnected. We had in fact been put on a (delayed) earlier flight than the one ticketed as our original flight from HRG had been delayed about an hour which they said would have meant a misconnection. There is a terminal change at Cairo from domestic to international , but despite all our tickets being on one "coupon" and possibly due to the change of domestic flight, there was no "transfer service" and it became a fairly lengthy walk/jog from domestic arrivals to international check-in. Other tight connections I have made abroad, e.g. AMS/CDG/LAX/DUB(international-international and even on occasion domestic-international) we have been met at the arriving aircraft and whisked off to the second flight on foot or gate-to-gate in a car or minibus. Would imagine the chance of this happening in CAI is about nil!!

Unless anyone can advise that things have radically changed at Cairo - and you have no hold baggage as well - I would venture to suggest that a 60 min transfer is well-nigh impossible. (It wouldn't happen easily at somewhere more geared to transfers like LHR as just about everywhere needs a minimum of an hour just to sort security out, never mind dealing with baggage, check in,visa checks and all the shouting that goes on in Egypt!!)

If you have a friendly local airline ticketing office or travel agent, ask what the MCT (minimum connecting time) IS at CAI .You should not be ticketed for less than the MCT - and personally I would insist on a good buffer these days to avoid the stress. If it actually is 60 mins I'd be surprised!! - wear your nikes and steel toe caps and you may be fortunate!! Good luck!

Sounds like a nightmare, especially with my 70 year old f-i-l in tow!
Looks like a call to Thomas cook tomorrow.

I think the problem is that your flight into Cairo will go into the Domestic terminal and your flight onward to LHR goes from Internationals. They are two separate buildings but only a few minutes walk from each other.

We did a flight into Cairo then onwards to Aswan about 18 months ago and had no problems. Baggage collection and check in at the domestic terminal was short and sweet (about 8pm on a Monday evening). We did a three centre, ending in Luxor and took the overnight sleeper back to Cairo and our check in there at the international terminal was very quick again (5pm on a Thursday evening).

You do have to have an exit card completed before you can go through to the departures lounge though!

An hour may just see you through but that all depends on your connection being on time....

Hvasey, one hour is probably not enough time. Officially the 'minimum connection time' for transfers at Cairo Airport is 90 minutes (30 minutes for domestic-domestic transfer).

Are you travelling Sharm-Cairo and Cairo-London on EgyptAir? If so the airline can check your bags all the way through from Luxor to London if the flights are on one itinerary (or did you by the flights separately)?

EgyptAir (mainline) and EgyptAir Express (regional subsidiary) operate around 3-4 Sharm-Cairo flights every morning which would connect with the London flight (I believe it departs around 12:45). If you can book yourself on flight MS021 which arrives into Cairo at 08:40 then that should give you enough time (most people with European onward connections are on this flight)

As for transfering at Cairo Airport, both your flights will be operating from Terminal 1, so there won't be a need to change terminals which makes things just that bit easier (the airport can be very hectic in the morning).

HOWEVER, if your trip is in May then you should be in luck. The new terminal at Cairo Airport (Terminal 3) will open next month where EgyptAir (and Star Alliance airlines) will re-locate. The state of the art terminal will make transfering at Cairo much smoother, quicker and dare I say more enjoyable then what it is today. The minimum connection times at the new terminal should be 60 minutes.

Hope this helps