Travel Guidelines during COVID-19

New Rules for 2021

Egypt:

According to the Egyptian immigration authorities at Cairo airport, new rules are currently implemented to apply Egyptian entry visa fees to several Arabian nationalities and ages previously exempted.

Morocco:

All flights to/from Casablanca have been suspended starting from March 4, 2021, till further notice.

United States:

• Effective from January 26, 2021, all passengers traveling to the United States must have a negative COVID-19 test during the three calendar days preceding the flight’s departure from a foreign country written or electronic documentation of a positive viral test result that confirms the passenger had a previous COVID-19 infection and a letter from a licensed health care provider or public health official stating the passenger is cleared to travel. This is referred to as “documentation of recovery."

• The test is a nucleic acid amplification test or a viral antigen test.

• Each passenger two years or older must have documentation of a negative test or documentation of recovery.

• Passengers must retain a copy of their negative test or documentation of recovery and present it for inspection at arrival upon request of USG.

• The United States recommends but does not mandate that international passengers take a post-arrival test three-five days after arrival and a seven-day period of staying at home.

United Kingdom:

1. PCR (effective from January 18, 2021)

• All international passengers traveling to England must have a negative COVID test (PCR) taken within three days before departure to the United Kingdom. Children under 11 years and under are exempted).
•  Passengers in transit over the UK are included and must present a negative test certificate and complete the PLF.
•  PCR test results must be in English, French, or Spanish. Translations will not be accepted, and you must provide the original test result certificate.
•  PCR test must include the following information: your name, which should match the name on your travel documents, date of birth or age, the result of the test, the date the test sample was collected or received by the test provider, the name of the test provider and their contact details and the name of the test device.

2. Quarantine:

• All new arrivals in the United Kingdom will have to self-isolate for two weeks.
• The measures will give police the power to carry spot checks at the home of international arrivals and impose fines of £ 1000 for breaking the self-isolation rules.
• Exemptions from self-isolation favor certain jobs.
• Check the passenger guidance link here.

France:

The French authorities have modified the travel rules. Passengers to France must have :

•  Negative Covid-19 test of less than 72 hours mandatory before boarding.
•  Only PCR or LAMP tests are allowed. Antigenic tests are no longer authorized.
•  Mandatory tests from the age of 11.
•  A travel certificate is required.

Germany:

1. Effective from January 24, the following entry regulations for entering Germany apply to all travelers arriving from countries or regions with increased risk of infection from COVID-19 with final destination Germany.

•  Travelers from countries/regions in RKI classification two (Egypt is included) traveling to Germany:

Travelers must present a medical certificate with a negative COVID PCR test, taken within 48 hours of entry into Germany (children under six years are exempt). For more information, click here.      

•  Obligation to fill in the DEA.

2. As of  January 25, all passengers over the age of 14 must therefore wear an FFP2 mask without a valve (also known as N95 or KN95 mask) onboard Austrian Airlines flights until further notice. Passengers are requested to bring the high-quality protective masks themselves for their own protection and that of others. The crew is also required to wear FFP2 masks. Higher classified masks, such as FFP3 masks without a valve, may also be worn. According to the new regulation, passengers between six and 14 years of age and pregnant women can travel with normal mouth-nose protection; children under six years of age continue to be exempt from the mask-wearing requirement. Passengers who cannot wear a mask for health reasons must present a negative Covid 19 test that is not older than 48 hours at the scheduled start of the trip and provide a medical certificate on an Austrian Airlines form. This can be downloaded from the Austrian Airlines website.

Netherlands:

In addition to the mandatory negative PCR-test results, the test-declaration, the health declaration, and the government add a mandatory COVID-19 negative rapid antigen-test to the spectrum of tests that need to be carried out air travel to the Netherlands. This test is also mandatory for transfer/transit passengers and does not exclude crew (unless the crew does not disembark the aircraft in the Netherlands).

• The COVID-19 rapid antigen-test must perform within 24 hours before departure.
• These regulations will be effective starting from January 23, 2021, till further notice.
• The quarantine in Cairo airport stopped to offer the rapid test service from March 22, 2021.

Lebanon:

1- Before traveling, fill in the form on covid.pcm.gov.lb.

2- At the airport, show the received approval by SMS or email to your airline company.

3- Download and activate the “ Covid Leb Track” application upon arrival at Beirut airport and present it to the ministry of health undergoing PCR test.

4- Set your localization upon arrival and respect the quarantine period (72 hours) to avoid legal actions.

Note that it is mandatory to check that the airport tracking form was filled by all pax coming to Beirut before boarding starting today.

Steps to complete the form and activate the application:

1- Complete the airport tracking registration form on covid.pcm.gov.lb.

2- You will receive an SMS including a code to verify your phone number.

3- Once the code is entered, you will receive another SMS, including a link to download the tracking app and a password that you need to enter when you open the application.

** Passengers who didn’t fill the form will not be accepted onboard. **

General Rules at Cairo Airport

In the light of the precautions taken for limiting the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19)

Effective from September 1, 2020, and till further notice:

• All passengers, "including Egyptians" traveling to Egypt, MUST have a negative PCR test (72) hours (before flight departure time).

•  Effective present date, all passengers traveling from Japan, China, Thailand, North America, South America, Canada, London Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, New Zealand, Australia, and South Korea will be permitted to provide the test certificate performed a maximum of 96 hours before flight time due to the long travel and transit period at these airports.

• All children, "regardless of their nationalities" under six years old, are exempted from the PCR test.

• Transit passengers (who are not entitled to hotel accommodation and will be staying at Cairo Airport till their onward flight) don’t require a PCR test upon arrival.

• Transit passengers (who are entitled to hotel accommodation and will not be staying at Cairo Airport till their Onward flight) must have a negative PCR test even if their final destination doesn’t require a negative PCR test able to accommodate them in a hotel.

The submitted PCR certificate will be accepted if it meets these requirements:

1. It includes the hour and the sampling date, which is when the 72 hours will be counted.

2. Issued by an authorized accredited laboratory and stamped with the laboratory’s stamp and does not contain scraping, cancellation, or addition

3. Indicating the type of sample taken for the swab

4. Indicating that the type of test is (RT - PCR)

5. A certificate is accepted in Arabic or English language.

• International passengers (who are traveling directly)  to (Sharm el Sheikh / Taba / Hurghada / Marsa Alam) airports who failed to submit a valid PCR test (72 hours before flight departure time) shall undergo the PCR test upon arrival to those airports with a charge of 30 USD.

• Applying health screening procedures at all entry points to arriving and departing passengers.

• Egyptair announces that the foreign customers not holding residency permit in Egypt will not be accepted to travel from Cairo to the Red Sea governorate (Hurghada and Marsa Allam), South Sinai governorate (Sharm El Sheikh), and Marsa Matrouh governorate, on the other hand, transit passengers flying from any city worldwide to these cities will be accepted to travel as long as the transit period at Cairo airport does not exceed six hours. 

• Passengers are obliged to wear masks inside the terminal and onboard. Passengers who are not wearing masks are denied both boarding and access to the terminal.

• All passengers must wear face masks at all-time in the airport and onboard. As a guide, a face mask could last up to four hours, so passengers are required to make sure that they have enough masks for the trip duration.

• All passengers at the airport are screened by thermal cameras and/or body temperature measurements.

• Passengers who are intending to travel are required to have private health insurance.

• Hand sanitizers have been set up at the airport.

• Seating areas have been rearranged according to rules of social distancing.

Countries Entry Instructions

• To check countries entry instructions, Click here.

Embassies Update

• To have more information on embassies updates, click here.

United States Visa

• At present, the USA Embassy in Cairo stopped the renewal of entry visa for the ages above 50 years old until further notice.
•  The Embassy is still renewing and issuing Visa (for the first time) for American Chamber Members Only.

• It's not allowed to book tickets to the United States on any European Schengen carrier (Lufthansa group – Air France – Alitalia ETC) for Egyptians holding visa B1/B2. Only Americans or passengers holding the green card can travel and for European citizens, check case by case with the airline.

• Palestinian nationals are still not allowed to travel to Egypt to cross the RAFAH border due to the continuation of the RAFAH border's closure and until further notice. 

• The same instructions that regulate Palestinian nationals' entry to Egypt (exempted from obtaining the visa) are still valid.

Airlines Updates

British Airways:

Due to new COVID-19 restrictions in the UK, British airways operations to/from Cairo airport will only be once per week till the end of February 21 as follows:

Turkish Airlines: 

• Passengers flying to Turkey from abroad are required to submit a negative PCR test, sampled a maximum of 72 hours before their flight 

• This procedure will be in effect as of December 30, 2020, till March 1, 2021

• Passengers who do not submit a negative PCR test (in print or as digital media) will not be admitted to the flight

• there is no obligation to submit a test result for passengers under six years old

• Starting from January 1, 2021, all Egyptian passengers over age "12 years and under 40 years old" need security approval to travel to Turkey from Egypt

• Transit passengers don’t need to show PCR tests at Istanbul airport. They will be accepted according to the rules for their final destination.