Cairo Terminal 2 set to open this week

But already several international carriers have begun using the terminal giving it a "soft opening" to prove the systems.

The first carrier to use the new terminal was Kuwait Airways, followed by their low cost carrier competitor Jazeera.

The new terminal will increase Cairo's capacity to 30 million passengers a year. Meanwhile Egypt’s civil aviation ministry has ordered a suspension of any EgyptAIr ticket sales for journeys which do not operate via Egypt. The suspension begins on October 5.

Civil aviation minister Sherif Fathi said there has been a significantly higher rate of sales for such journeys by travel agencies.He said these recent moves were intended to take advantage of differences in official and black-market currency exchange rates, "to the “detriment of the national economy."