Hurghada International Airport — Local services in Al Hadaba

Horrible airport, there is completely no organisation, security check is absolute disaster, honeslty there is more sense in Egyptian bazaar...

First there is security before check-in... so even your check-in luggage with liquids have to go trought scanner and obviously that creates carnage and they literally ask random people to take shoes off and open bags... or both...the metal detetor is there just for show, nobody even cares if it beeps or not, everything is done just for show, some random bags are opened, some random people are asked to take shoes off even if they didn't beep, others beep but are asked to go trought, conveyer with bags runs and stops randomly, so sometimes people wait for 5 min and nothing happens, other times it just runds continously and liteally throws bags on the floor... people are running arround asking for their passports that fell under the conveiour etc. Absolute circus!

To be fair check-in desk was very efficient and staff professional, but that is probably because it is run by airlines, not by airport.

But that is not all, then there is normal security after check in where you go trought all that again, the only difference is that now everyone has to take shoes off for some reason, then regardless if they beep or not everyone are pat down for show, kind of stupid dance, becausause they not even searching you, just sort to run hands near your body for show. Then as always randome people are asked to step out of the queue and do it all again, where all body scanner is again used for show, because regardless of what it says you will be pat down in a way that is clearly just for show, the person isn't even looking what they touching and woman ar not checked... because they only have men on duty for that part. Also queues kind of don't work, because last minute they are all split by gender... instead of having both in all queues that are open like in any other airport in the world.

Duty "free" and the rest I hope it is already clear they are useless, don't bother, prices are joke, I would not recommend eating anyhing, they can't even turn on air conditioning properly, so it is hot and damp... and stinks from smoke, also minimum $15 spend on card (to pad the spending). They can't even manage to clean 3 toilets, there are only 3 - man, woman and disabled.

Then... yes there is third security check... why? Who knows... just because, they open all the bags again, this time seems to swipe for explosives or drugs... I wonder why there are other two checks? For show... indeed!

And this is not even busy airport - 2 flights in the evening... I guess that is why, because if there would be 50 flights an hour, security would create such bottleneck that no single plane would take off with single person on board. They do this because they are bored. And I don't mind strict security, point is that they don't check anything, they literally play "airport security", but actually don't understand what they are doing and why, nor why they have equitptment they have or how to use it. I literally carried 0.5L cocacola bottle in the pocket of my bag and that was not checked. I did not take my laptop out (there was such chaos that I forgot and there was no time for it) and that was not an issur either. So they can't even find basics... what are the odds of thwm finding actual concealed... say bomb? 0 chaces - they don't do it to find anything, they do it for show, to pretend they are working.

By the way what is up with useless declarations? Nobody even looks at them, the information they ask is already in the passport they scan anyway. What purpose do they have? Honestly, when I was going to Egypt 20 years ago, they looked backwards then, but by now, not only they have not improved, they got even worse! Sure security was always a bit of joke, but at least one didn't need to go 3 times trought it. Also I have not been in Hurghada airport since covid, but it certainly got much worse and it is also worse than Cairo, or Sharm from recent travel. Not even sure how they get it...

On the face of it Hurghada looks like a new, sleek modern airport, It is clean and the entrance is air conditioned. Coming from Gatwick to here was relatively easy however once we claimed our baggage we had to wait for the entire carousel to empty before realising our Pram was considered 'odd shape' like everyone else's and was in a completely different place that I stumbled upon (No communication to where this was).

On the way back to Gatwick... However, it becomes quickly apparent that even though the building is modern, the practices within are not.

The security checks are EVERYWHERE, and whilst this sounds like a good thing from a safety aspect it isn't effcient in the slightest, it is disorganised, loud, in-polite and everything is designed to be as disruptive as possible. We travelled as a family with 3 children under 7 and with my wife, we had to go through a male and female detector, our 3 year old had to go through it but then my wife also was patted down allowing our daughter to wonder off since she was already past the checks. If you have a pram you have to get it swabbed and you have to enter your passport numbers for the whole family for this?, this practice is done a second time at passport control where you have to fill in CARDS?! in this day and age everything should be digitised, here it's paper, ink and stamps. basically Velcro your passports and boarding passes to your head. I'm amazed we came back with all our belongings.

They boast free WIFI however we wasn't able to connect (we were delayed and had cancelations so had to come back a second day and it still wasn't on)...

Do not eat at the gate shops they will fleece you, it's actually disgusting to pray on travellers with the prices they were trying to extort as you have no other options when you are that far into the airport. we paid almost £90 for 5 sandwich's, drinks and Crips ... Think the place was called 'Camden Market' but trust me, Camden would have been half the price!

finally at the gate the air conditioning pitters off and it's rather uncomfortable waiting for several hours. We also had the unfortunate experiance of having to be 'buss'd' to the plane, the driver didn't turn on any air conditioning, in 40 degree heat and we all had to wait untill the bus was full before departing to the plane, I thought the the air con might come on whilst being moved but no, not the case. By the end everyone was dripping in sweet and once we came to a stop the driver didn't open the doors for another couple of minutes, everyone was getting extremely agitated.

Communication on screens is fine when you first start your journey around the airport, but by the time you get to the gate, the screens do not get updated, the announcements on the PA are impossible to hear / understand and support from your airline operator disappears. I would never travel back...

I have to be honest, unlike most of the negatives of Egypt, I was not actually stressed in this airport, and I think as long as you arrive early so there is no concern of missing your flight, you will probably find yourself laughing to yourself at just how absolutely cartoonishly ludicrous this airport is. It's a real case of truth being stranger than fiction, and in this case it was some South Park level of ridiculous, trust me.

To understand it, you need to understand what a boondoggle is. A boondoggle is a superfluous job created by the government to reduce unemployment.

Hurghada Airport is big on boondoggles.

There is a guy at the door who checks your tickets and passport. Then you go in and there is a security check before the checkin desk.

Before the security check another guy checks the same documents... about 20 meters after the first dude.

Then theres the security check number 1, where you have to take everything off including belt and shoes, and everyone is frisked. Then a guy searches your bag, in what I note was a rather superficial manner, I could have hidden something illegal in there easily. And after seeing that guy, you have to write name, number, nationality and passport number on a lil piece of paper.

Then the checkin desk, where you HAVE to go because electronic boarding passes are not allowed.

Then passport control as usual.

Then another security check after passport control, same thing again, another dude does a secondary body scan on you, get you to stand in front of something that looks like a blackboard, hold your arms in the air and turn 360 degrees. I didn't have the presence of mind at the time to check if its fake but I think it probably was not a real machine. Then again you have yo write your details on a piece of paper.

Then walk ten paces over to the guy who wants to stamp your boarding pass and search your bag... again. And once more, name, passport number, nationality on a piece of paper.

Then finally you can go to the gate, but not without dodging random people who ask you for tips in the toilets despite not having any cleaning equipment to speak of.

And even the gates are cordoned off into separate sections, with a gatekeeper to once again check your tickets.

They try to scam you at the shops by saying the water is 45 EGP but its actually 150.

Then you scan your ticket at the gate to board the plane and then, to top it all off, as you walk down the tube to the aircraft, theres another dude in there who just wants to check your tickets one final time.

The view from Hurghada Airport is absolutely gorgeous. But if you want to leave Egypt with nothing but irrepressible contempt for the country and its people, Hurghada Airport is the way to go.

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