Gulf consortia backed by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have submitted new financial bids to manage and operate Hurghada Airport after the government rejected earlier bids as too low, a source familiar with the Finance Ministry’s privatization program told Al Manassa.
The new bids were described by the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as “appropriate” and are currently under review ahead of a final decision. The airport offering is being prepared in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the technical adviser to Egypt’s state-asset offerings program, and forms part of commitments Cairo made to the IMF under its extended loan program.
Last month, the government rejected bids from 70 consortia of local and Gulf investors to manage and operate airports because of their low financial value, according to a source familiar with the Cabinet’s offerings file, in earlier statements to Al Manassa.
The government faces repeated IMF demands to speed up privatization, but several deals have stalled because investors’ offers were too low, including the proposed privatization of Banque du Caire and the Gabal El-Zeit wind farm.
“The financial bids the government received in recent months to manage and operate Hurghada Airport did not meet expectations, but the Gulf consortia’s bids submitted recently are appropriate and are currently under review ahead of a final decision,” the source said.
A senior Finance Ministry source had previously told Al Manassa that delays in the IMF’s approval of the fifth and sixth reviews of Egypt’s loan agreement were partly due to slow implementation of the privatization program.
The Finance Ministry source said today that the government is currently finalizing procedures to offer Sphinx, Luxor, and Sharm El-Sheikh airports, in preparation for bringing in the private sector to manage and operate them in the second half of this year.
Last December, the Civil Aviation Ministry announced a first-of-its-kind trial to offer Hurghada Airport’s management to a private-sector operator, before extending the period to obtain tender documents by an additional month, until March 12, as part of a plan to sign a series of public-private partnerships across 11 airports.
According to data issued by the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, Hurghada Airport set records after handling 10.5 million passengers in fiscal year 2024-2025, up 22%. The Civil Aviation Ministry also announced a new single-day operating record on Oct. 25, when passenger numbers topped 53,000, the highest daily rate since the start of 2025.
Despite those volumes, there are no published figures for Hurghada Airport’s revenue. The Civil Aviation Ministry describes it as the country’s second-busiest airport by air traffic, but the government hopes private-sector upgrades will increase annual revenue by about $300 million, bringing it to about $800 million, according to earlier statements from a Finance Ministry source to Al Manassa.
