CAI closed 2025 at a record 30.94 million passengers (+6.8%) and 224,303 flights — beyond its terminals' 28-million design capacity. January 2026 ran +14%, and a roughly $4-billion Terminal 4 programme now aims to bolt 40 million more passengers onto the field.
Terminals 1, 2 and 3 were built for roughly 28 million passengers; 2025 delivered 30.94 million, and the minister expects about 31 million in 2026. The monthly tape shows the pressure: ~3.0 million in January (+14%), 2.76 million in February (+12%), more than eight million by end-March (+9% on Q1 2025), and a record 103,000 passengers in a single December day.
OAG's September 2026 data puts Cairo at ~1.79 million scheduled seats — up 11.2% year on year and decisively ahead of Addis Ababa (1.19M) for the African crown. Egyptian airports overall handled ~28 million arriving and departing passengers in 2025, up from 22.9 million.
The Terminal 4 project — reported at about $4 billion — is designed to add capacity for up to 40 million passengers a year on the existing field, taking the airport's theoretical ceiling toward 70 million. It anchors a national programme: 23 airports today versus 19 in 2014, a third terminal planned at Hurghada (+10–15M), and Sphinx International growing west of the city as the pyramids-side reliever.
For the GEM era, geography matters: Sphinx International sits 20 minutes from the museum; CAI remains the full-service hub — increasingly bridged by metro and monorail.
CAI is a demand machine outgrowing its shell: record years stacked on record months, with Terminal 4 as the $4-billion answer. For the traveller: until T4 lands, treat CAI as congested — arrive three hours ahead, and if your trip is pyramids-and-GEM only, price Sphinx International (SPX): new, calm and twenty minutes from the plateau. For the watcher: watch the T4 tender structure and Gulf-capital participation, and whether EgyptAir's fleet renewal converts seat growth into transfer share against Gulf hubs. The African seat lead over Addis is real but contestable — connectivity breadth, not size, decides it.
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