By AP / TAREK EL-TABLAWY, courtesy of TIME
Riot police force protestors back on the Kasr Al Nile Bridge as they attempt to get into Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
(CAIRO) — Foreign tourists and Egyptians flocked to Cairo’s main airport on Saturday, scrambling to find flights out of the country as days of often violent protests that forced the resignation of the government showed few signs of abating.
Israeli carrier El Al was trying to arrange a special flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of the country, a Cairo International Airport official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. Israel’s embassy in Egypt declined to comment.
The efforts came as between 1,500 and 2,000 travelers were at the airport’s two main departure terminals, most without reservations and frantic to find any available seats of outbound flights. But the bid could prove difficult, if not futile, as some European and U.S. airlines began to announce cancelations or suspensions of service to Cairo and Egypt’s national carrier was said to be experiencing lengthy delays.
EgyptAir had suspended overnight departures Friday because of a government-imposed curfew. The carrier had yet to take a similar step Saturday, though the expansion of that curfew to between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. made it increasingly unlikely that travelers would be able to head to the airport for evening flights.
German carrier Lufthansa said it had canceled both of its two scheduled flights to Cairo on Saturday. Air Berlin canceled one flight to Cairo. U.S. carrier Delta Airlines, which flies direct to Cairo from the U.S., said service to and from Cairo would be "indefinitely suspended as a result of civil unrest."
The violence that gripped Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and several other cities over the past few days has presented President Hosni Mubarak with the biggest challenge of his nearly 30-year rule. The protesters are demanding his ouster and that measures be taken to address rampant poverty and corruption, the rising cost of living and the growing disparity in income distribution.
But the protests threaten to undercut one of Egypt’s key foreign revenue generators — tourism, which accounts for about 11 percent of Egypt’s gross domestic product. Tourism brought in over $9 billion for Egypt in the first nine months of 2010 and $10.8 billion the year before.
Egypt’s military closed off access to the pyramids in Giza — with tanks and armored personnel carriers sealing off the site on the Giza Plateau. The area is normally packed with tourists and is a main draw for those who come to Cairo.
The move — aimed at ensuring the tourists’ security — was likely to be seen as another worrying indicator in a nation that until earlier this week had been a pillar of stability in a trouble-prone region.
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Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Angela Doland in Paris contributed.
See also: How Egypt cut off the Internet.
Mubarak’s defiance is making diplomacy a challenge for Obama.
The fear of Islamists paralyzes the U.S.
TIME’s eyewitness report from the ground in Cairo.
