Cairo international airport is ready to receive foreign delegations participating in the New Suez Canal inauguration ceremony, Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said on Tuesday.

Delegations of Ethiopia, Singapore, United States of America and Thailand arrived at the airport in the wee hours of Tuesday, the minister said.

He added that guests from Lebanon, the UAE and Germany arrived in Egypt for the same occasion.

Kamal noted that Belgian, Dutch, Russian, French, Spanish and British delegations will arrive later in the day.

The enlarged Suez Canal, to be inaugurated Thursday, will allow ships to sail in both directions at the same time over much of the canal's length. This is expected to decrease the waiting time from 11 to 3 hours for most ships and to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.