By Nayrouz Talaat

Egypt's Minister of Civil Aviation Abdel-Aziz Fadel has ordered the exemption of passengers from demurrage or any fees in case they were delayed due to traffic conditions, said a press release issued Wednesday.

The authorities imposed curfew on Wednesday following several confrontations and political tension due to the security forces' crackdown on two Cairo protest camps, which were a six-week standoff between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood's deposed president and the military that ousted him.

"Proper coordination with concerned entities took place in order to allow passengers' movement during the curfew hours, provided that they show their passports and flight tickets at security checkpoints, indicating departure or arrival times," Fadel said.

National air carrier EgyptAir will allow passengers who board after nine pm in the evening flights to start their check-in procedures at five pm, which is before curfew time, according to the aviation ministry.

Fadel confirmed that both departure and arrival flights at Cairo International Airport were operating steadily and that no flights were cancelled. He stressed that Egypt's airspace is open for regular air traffic.

About 233 departure/arrival flights carrying 21 thousand passengers were conducted from 12:00am until 12:00pm on Thursday.

The Cairo International airport operated 179 flights carrying 14 thousand passengers, while other Egyptian airports (Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Borg El Arab, Luxor, Sohag, Assiut) conducted 54 departure/arrival flights carrying 7,000 passengers.