CAC Lounge, Cairo Airport. A shoddy lounge, on par with one of the worst airports in the world.

Last visit : August 2025

My rating : 4/10

Airport : CAI

Terminal : 1

Access method : Priority pass

I have passed through Cairo Airport several times in my life and I have the impression that, considering the importance of an airport serving a metropolis of 20 million inhabitants at the crossroads between the West and the East, it is one of the worst airports in the world: antiquated structure, terrible services, constant inefficiencies and poor service, cramped spaces, lack of comfort and the most basic services.

The CAC Lounge at Cairo International Airport isn't too different: it's one of those spaces that, at first glance, looks promising. The atmosphere is pleasant, quiet, and clean : three qualities not to be overlooked in a chaotic and tiring airport. Those who enter have the feeling of finding an orderly refuge, almost a civilized interlude in the chaos of the terminal.

Unfortunately, once you cross the threshold, the promise is broken quite clearly.

Getting through the entrance is quite difficult and requires at least three attempts to convince the attendant that the Priority Pass entitles you to free admission for two people; for some reason, the first two attempts are unsuccessful, and only the third, given the same reasons and QR code, is successful.

The food is simply disappointing : stale, lacking freshness, sometimes with a consistency that betrays hours, if not days, of refrigeration. The food offerings appear not only sparse, but above all cheap , as if they were conceived to the bare minimum, with no regard for quality or for the traveler who pays for access. In an era when many lounges compete precisely on their culinary offerings, the CAC Lounge seems stuck in a low-cost canteen concept; at 8 a.m., every dish seems to have already seen numerous sunrises; beyond external appearances, the food appears to have been made entirely from a single ingredient belonging to the cardboard family; the orange juice has a disturbingly intense orange color that seems to have been squeezed from high-visibility highway rescue vests; the falafel, which I would describe as "repeated" because they could hardly have been produced less than a week ago, would seem more suited to being used as blunt instruments in the event of a new Arab Spring than for consumption.

To make matters worse, the Wi-Fi connection is practically unusable . Extremely slow, unstable, often unable to handle even a simple Google search, and available only in the outdoor area of the lounge: a paradox in a place that should be designed for those who work or those who, between flights, are trying to optimize their time.