President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed officials to establish integrated investment zones around Egypt's airports at a meeting on Monday 31 August 2026, in the same session where he reviewed plans for a fourth terminal at Cairo International Airport designed to handle 40 million passengers a year, Ahram Online reported.
The meeting brought together Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Civil Aviation Minister Sameh El-Hefny and the presidential adviser for financial affairs, Ahmed El-Shazly, according to Daily News Egypt. Presidential spokesperson Mohamed El-Shennawy issued the readout afterwards.
What that readout describes is a directive and a progress review. No construction contract, no financing arrangement, no groundbreaking date and no completion year were announced for Terminal 4. The cost estimate still attached to the project in press reports dates from its original announcement in September 2025, and nothing released on 31 August updated it.
The capacity numbers, and where the reports diverge
Terminal 4 is designed for an annual capacity of 40 million passengers. Ahram Online puts the traffic currently carried by Terminals 1, 2 and 3 combined at 28 million a year. Daily News Egypt and Egyptian Streets both describe Cairo International as handling more than 30 million passengers a year. All three arrive at the same headline figure for the airport once the new terminal opens: roughly 70 million a year.
Those two base numbers are not reconciled anywhere in the statements released on 31 August. Twenty-eight million plus 40 million is 68 million. More than 30 million plus 40 million is more than 70 million. Both round to the figure every outlet used, but no per-terminal breakdown was published alongside the readout, and none of the reports distinguishes between design capacity and passengers actually processed. Until the civil aviation ministry publishes the underlying table, 70 million is a rounded projection rather than a computed total.
- Terminal 4 design capacity: 40 million passengers a year, reported by Ahram Online, Daily News Egypt and Egyptian Streets.
- Terminals 1, 2 and 3 combined: 28 million a year, per Ahram Online; Daily News Egypt and Egyptian Streets put current traffic above 30 million.
- Total once Terminal 4 opens: roughly 70 million a year, in all three reports.
- Estimated cost: $4.5bn, a figure from the September 2025 announcement, per Ahram Online.
- Build duration: about four years, also from the 2025 announcement; no start date has been stated.
- Airports in the private-partnership portfolio: 11, with the International Finance Corporation as technical adviser, per Ahram Online.
A cost figure that is a year old
The $4.5bn estimate and the roughly four-year build duration both come from September 2025, when the terminal was first announced, and are carried by Ahram Online. Neither Daily News Egypt nor Egyptian Streets reported a cost or a timeline in their accounts of the meeting.
No construction start date has been made public, so the four-year figure cannot be anchored to a completion year. Egypt has also not said what share of the $4.5bn it expects private investors to carry rather than the state budget — a gap that matters more than usual given that the same meeting produced a directive on attracting foreign capital into aviation.
Investment zones without a published framework
El-Sisi ordered the establishment of integrated investment zones around Egyptian airports to strengthen strategic partnerships and attract foreign direct investment into civil aviation, Ahram Online reported. Daily News Egypt reported that he also called for greater private-sector participation in airport management and operations.
None of the three reports names a site for such a zone, the legal instrument that would create one, the incentives on offer, the body that would allocate land, or a date by which any of it happens. The directive is the decision that has been taken; the framework that would turn it into a transaction has not been published.
the new terminal aims to represent a qualitative shift in the airport's capacity, supporting the state's target of transforming Egypt into a major regional hub for aviation, transport, and logistics — Mohamed El-Shennawy, presidential spokesperson, as reported by Daily News Egypt
Eleven airports, and the Hurghada precedent
The nearest working precedent is already running. In June 2025, El-Sisi directed that Hurghada International Airport be offered for private-sector partnership. Ahram Online reports it as part of a wider effort covering 11 major Egyptian airports, with the International Finance Corporation acting as technical adviser, aligned with Egypt's Vision 2030 strategy and structured to keep the airports in state ownership while bringing private capital into their operation.
That portfolio is the mechanism the airport investment zones would sit alongside, and it is further along than the zones are. It is also incomplete in the same way: none of the reports names which of the 11 airports comes next, identifies a bidder or investor, or gives a timetable for a signed transaction.
Service complaints, tourist numbers and what would confirm the plan
El-Sisi told officials that complaints about service quality at Egypt's airports should be monitored and addressed seriously and promptly, according to Ahram Online. That instruction applies to the terminals operating now, not the one on the drawing board.
Egyptian Streets reported that Egypt received about 9 million tourists in the first half of 2026, roughly 4% more than in the same period of 2025, and presented that growth as the pressure behind the expansion. The same report noted two changes already made at the airport: 3D security-scanning equipment, and a pedestrian walkway connecting Terminal 2 to the multi-storey car park.
El-Hefny told the meeting that “continuous investment in modernizing and expanding the capacity of Egyptian airports aims to meet the requirements of the country's overall development”, in the wording reported by Ahram Online. He described the project as relying on “the latest global concepts in airport design and operation, applying artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and sustainable smart operating systems”, according to Daily News Egypt.
Four things would move Terminal 4 and the investment zones from directive to commitment: an updated cost figure attached to a signed contract, a construction start date, the legal instrument creating the zones, and a completed transaction on any one of the 11 airports. None of the four existed on 31 August. Until they do, 70 million passengers is a design target for a building that has not been started.
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