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Egypt to bring in private airport management

By Edmund Bower
Airport, Clothing, Pants Alamy via Reuters
People watch jets at Egypt's Hurghada airport. The government says private sector involvement in airports 'will provide a better service to travellers'
  • Airports will not be sold, says minister
  • Contracts to be expanded
  • IMF urged more private participation

Egypt is offering contracts to private companies to manage selected airports in an effort to attract investment into the aviation sector and improve services for travellers.

The newly appointed civil aviation minister Sameh Al-Hafni announced the move in a meeting with key ministry officials, and subsequently released them as a statement via the Egyptian cabinet on Saturday. 

In the meeting the minister pushed back on rumours spreading on social media that Egypt might sell airports, saying this practice is “not healthy” given their strategic importance to the state. 

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He suggested that the government might instead expand build, operate and transfer contracts along the lines of Marsa Alam Airport, the first in Egypt to be managed by a private company – EMAK Marsa Alam – under such a deal. 

It follows announcements made by prime minister Mostafa Madbouly in November that the government plans to tender contracts to private companies to manage airports.

Al-Hafni said that the ministry is carrying out studies to identify particular airports for private sector involvement “in order to provide a better service to travellers with profitability”.

He added that private sector participation would ease the burden on the Egyptian state. He gave no indication which airports are being considered.

Egypt is under pressure to increase private sector share of economic activity from the International Monetary Fund, which made increased support for the private sector a key requirement of an $8 billion extended fund facility agreed in March, and from budget cuts in the face of large sovereign debt obligations.

The country is hoping for a record number of tourists this year, beating the 14.9 million visitors who arrived in 2023.

In the face of growing tensions in the region, the then tourism minister Ahmed Issa revised visitor targets for 2024 down from 18 million to between 15.5 million and 16.5 million in May.

Egypt hopes to receive 30 million visitors a year by 2030.

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