Review of Egyptair flight from Erbil to Cairo in Economy

MS636 / CAI-EBL

Good morning from Erbil, Kurdistan. Today I'm flying to London via Cairo. My two-week trip in Kurdistan ended with an early start: a 3 a.m. wake-up at the hotel, a quick pack, and a taxi to the airport.

Some of the many beautiful  buildings that make up the Erbil Skyline! 

Security at Erbil airport is tight because of the European flights. Driving into the complex, you're greeted by sniffer dogs, who take a quick nose of your car. After that you reach the small meet-and-greet terminal where people say their goodbyes and drivers leave. An officer checks your ticket to make sure you’re a passenger, then you go through a basic security scan — just put your bags on the conveyor, no need to unpack. After that you board a shuttle bus for a quick ride to the main terminal.
In the main terminal they check tickets again, run another quick bag scan and then you check in. I went to the international passport line, which was quicker, and then you hit the final security checkpoint before the gates. The terminal’s shaped like a “T”: when you head into a branch where the gates are, you pass a new, high-tech full scanner that normally just means putting your bag through and only getting a pat-down if it flags, much faster than older systems. 
Once through, I got to my gate area, standard seats, a TV, apron view. 

Todays flight was on an EgyptAir 737-800, registered: SU-GEA, a 14 year old, 2010 delivered airframe.
Boarding began on time, going smoothly and uneventfully.
Once onboard, I was greeted by cabin crew and  found my seat.
The cabin shows its age: the seats were big and roomy but worn and a bit dirty, and my window was scratched, which made photos difficult. 

For the first time ever on Egyptair, we pushed back and departed on time, my previous two flights this  month  on the airline were delayed by about an hour  or more. 
We taxiied to RWY 36 of Erbil airport and had a smooth departure, with a left turn down towards  Cairo,  tracking over Iraq and Jordan.
We  reached cruising  altitude and the crew  came around with a light breakfast, some slices of cheese, chicken, bread, butter, olives, tea and water, plus the iconic mango juice. 

The rest of cruising was uneventful, passing over Wadi Rum then down the Gulf of Aqaba, across the Red Sea, and continuing toward Cairo. 

We began  our  descent  into  Cairo, landing  on runway 05C, before  taxiing  to  a  remote stand. 
Thankfully, we landed 11 minutes early, at 8:49am, making up the lost  time due to  the remote  stand.  

My connection in Cairo was about 1 hour 45 minutes, normally perfectly  fine  for me, however I  was a little bit nervous, partially due to Egyptairs  terrible on  time operations, but also due to the  negative reports  of cairo airport,  being a confusing, big, unclear and dirty airport, with  clocks being multiple times, signs only in  arabic, confusing  navigation  etc, however, the transfer was alright, it  was straightforward enough after  finding the small  door to continue to transfers. After this, I continued to my  gate, for my  connecting 777 flight to London, you  can  read that report on my profile.