Here’s a useful tip for travellers to Egypt. Don’t use Egypt Air.
As we entered the departure gate for our flight there was an extra security check. Now that’s pretty understandable given the current political situation in the area, but the problem was that the Egypt Air security guard doing the checks spoke very little English[1]. He decided that he wanted to remove my unopened set of Duracell batteries from my hand luggage. His English was good enough to explain that they would be waiting for me in Cairo, but not good enough to explain why I couldn’t have them on the plane with me. And then half an hour later as we were sitting on the plane, he changed his mind and came up to me and gave them back. I’ve still no idea what all that was about.
We boarded the plane about half and hour late and finally took off about an hour late. At no point during that time were we given any kind of explaination or apology for the delay.
And finally, you might like to know that Egypt Air doesn’t server any alcohol on its flights. That didn’t bother me much, but I really think that they should make that clearer to you _before_ you get on the plane (maybe even before you book the flight!)
All in all, not exactly one of my favourite airlines.
[1] But obviously his English was better than my Arabic!