Sphinx International Airport, Kerdasa: Exact Location Explained

Sphinx International Airport sits on the Cairo–Alexandria desert road, on the western edge of Greater Cairo, near the town of Kerdasa in Giza Governorate. It shares its site with the older Cairo West Air Base, which is why some older maps and flight-tracking tools still label the area under that name.

In distance terms, the airport is roughly 19 nautical miles (about 35 km) from 6th of October City and around 25 nautical miles (roughly 46 km) from Cairo International Airport (CAI) — the two airports are on opposite sides of the city and are not connected by any direct terminal transfer, so plan a full road journey if you need to move between them.

For travellers, the practical upshot is simple: Sphinx Airport is the closer option if your trip is centred on Giza, the Pyramids, or the Grand Egyptian Museum, while Cairo International remains the better-connected hub for long-haul international flights.

It is a single-terminal airport: one compact main building (around 4,000 m² of terminal space on a roughly 24,000 m² site) handles both domestic and international departures and arrivals, with a processing capacity of around 900 passengers an hour and an annual capacity of about 1.5 million passengers following recent upgrades. As with most Egyptian airports, it's worth arriving at least 3 hours before an international departure and around 2 hours before a domestic one, since security screening and passport control can take longer at busier times.

You may also see it referred to as Giza Airport, Giza International, Cairo Sphinx Airport or Al Giza Airport — these all refer to the same facility (IATA: SPX, ICAO: HESX). Sphinx Airport (SPX) and Cairo International Airport (CAI) are two separate facilities on opposite sides of Greater Cairo, roughly 46 km apart by road with no direct terminal transfer between them, so it's worth double-checking which one your flight actually uses before you plan ground transport.