Orascom Investment Holding Withdraws From the Race to Operate Hurghada Airport

Orascom Investment Holding has withdrawn from the competition to operate Hurghada International Airport, the financial news site Bawabat Blom reported on 23 August.

The report does not set out why the company stepped back, and it gives no picture of the state of the process it is leaving. What it does not say:

• why Orascom Investment Holding withdrew
• which bidders are still in the running
• when an operator is due to be chosen
• whether the withdrawal changes the timetable or the terms of the competition

Hurghada International Airport is the main gateway to this coast. Most of the holidaymakers who fill hotels in Hurghada, El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi and Soma Bay land there, and so do the charter programmes that European airlines build a whole season around.

That is why the question of who runs it is more than a corporate story. An airport operator is responsible for the parts of a trip passengers remember without wanting to — how long passport control takes after midnight, whether the baggage belts keep up when four flights land at once, how the arrivals hall holds up in August heat — and for the charges airlines weigh when they decide where to add capacity.

Nothing changes at the terminal today. The airport continues to be run as it is now, and on the evidence of this report the competition to appoint an operator remains open. Hurghada News has not independently confirmed the withdrawal with the company.