Motorcycle air freight to Egypt
 

Hello everybody,

Me and three friends are riding from Cairo to Cape Town during November and December this year.

My question relates to the air freight to Cairo, and I hope someone has gone through this recently.

I have received quotes for the actual air freight, but this is not my concern as that is the easy part.

My question is with regards to custom clearance in Cairo: has anyone cleared their motorcycle themself? I will have a Carnet and all paperwork in place before the bike flies out. I was just quoted USD 950 by a custom clearance agent and that seems a bit excessive for me. Is it possible to go through this process without using a customs clearance agent and collecting your own motorcycle?

I understand that this type of bureaucracy can be tedious in Africa, but I am African and will be able to deal with the red tape.

Thanks in advance.

J

I haven't gotten a bike into Egypt, but I have shipped out a couple of years back. The experience (plus that of crossing the land border in from Sudan) taught me Egypt takes beaurocracy to a creative and complexity level unthought of by any of the other African countries. I paid $450 for the outgoing clearance activities on my bike, a price I initially thought was outrageous but after going through the process realised was value for money. Simply to get my bike on a ship out of the country I had to go to the immigration department to get some special permissions, the court to get official translations of my documents to Arabic plus many other steps I forget. Unless you speak good Arabic I think the chances of clearing your bike at the airport in any timely manner without support will be very low.

Good luck in your search for info / finding a better priced agent.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

keep me posted
 

seeking the same info. planning Cairo to cape town next spring. just started digging into planning. flying bike in from miami fl. crossed into egypt from jordan by boat in 2000. no problem. might fly bike into Amman jordon this time.

cairo customs
 

any luck? i just got a quote for 870 euro... to clear customs,delivery order, inspections, traffic,plates,customs guarantee excuding port storage charges. still need carnet etc.
try me at tedhartshorn@mac.com . would love to chat

Process getting into Egypt
 

Similarly looked at shipping from Athens to Egypt. Quote for shipping easy but trying to get a handle on clearance once landed was pretty much a total vacuum for relevant info. A couple of guesstimates (all NOT including this, or that or something else extra - like storage charges) made, for me at least, trying to budget an impossible exercise. The best guess was €800 plus for shipping, about similar for clearing the port, plates, Egyptian carnet (told me mine would not be accepted) - plus or minus another €1000 for undefined fees, taxes, charges.
Alternatively looked at air freight to Khartoum - air freight similar €800 mark but info vacuum for clearance process & charges. So for me the exercise was frustrating and way beyond what I was prepared to spend. I'm now heading via Morocco and West Africa. Guess I'll see what happens when/if I come back that way.
Sorry if this comes off as quite negative. I'm not the only one disappointed that this route/option is so difficult to plan.