In the early 2000s, we organized a large charter flight to Egypt for a corporate event—the Bulgarian branch of a major company headquartered in Basel. We landed at CAI. Five minutes passed, then fifteen more, and we were still on the plane; they simply wouldn’t service it. The American CEO was pressing me: "What did you do wrong?" I knew nothing was wrong on our side.
I approached the armed men just outside our aircraft. They said they hadn't expected us and demanded over 5,000 USD to service the plane and let the passengers disembark. I had the money in my pocket and handed it over without hesitation—no documents, no receipt. We were then allowed to leave the aircraft, and the event proceeded as planned.
The next afternoon, airport authorities contacted me and sent someone to return the money I had paid. The representative explained that because we arrived during one of their religious holidays, someone in air traffic control wasn’t focused, failed to recognize our aircraft, and directed us to the wrong terminal, treating us as an unscheduled and unpaid landing.