Another group of Canadians is on its way out of Egypt and headed for Germany as a third charter flight departed Cairo Tuesday evening.
Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesperson, sent a message out via Twitter saying that approximately 130 Canadians were on board the plane, along with nationals from other countries, such as the United States and Australia.
The Air Canada charter flight is on its way to Frankfurt. Another plane, chartered from Skylink Aviation, is scheduled to take off for Paris later Tuesday.
On Monday two charter flights flew Canadians out of Egypt, where thousands of protesters have taken to the street, demanding the resignation of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
All passengers being flown out on government-arranged charter flights are required to sign a contract in which they agree to pay their share of the flight, approximately $400 each.
While Canadian embassy staff members are meeting Canadians at the Frankfurt airport, passengers are largely on their own to organize travel beyond Europe.
Michael Bociurkiw, a passenger on a flight that arrived in Frankfurt Monday night, told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday he was relieved to be out of Egypt.
"It was quite the ordeal," he told CTV's Canada AM.
"We had to wait many hours on the ground in Cairo International Airport yesterday afternoon to get processed, and then there were delays getting the plane off the ground and there was a really tense moment with the ground-handling agent extracting basically what was a bribe of $2,000 to open the doors to the tarmac."
Bociurkiw said all the passengers grudgingly began to dig into their wallets to come up with the money, but it appeared several people at the front of the line covered the unexpected expense.
He said the experience left him with a bad taste in his mouth, and many others said they would never return to Egypt.
"After everything everybody had gone through to get to the airport, to endure the lawlessness, the shooting, everything, it added insult to injury that at the last minute they would demand a $2,000 unexplained payment," he said.
Once the passengers were all finally on the plane there were further delays as they waited for a tow to a runway. After that came word that airport security officials wanted to rescreen all the passengers on the plane.
"There were some very, very tense moments because the clock was ticking down because the pilot's hours that he was allowed to fly were about to expire, so there was a point where we didn't think we would even get off the ground," Bociurkiw said.
Eventually, the plane was allowed to take off for Germany.
The first plane took off at 3 p.m. ET Monday.
Further flights in the coming days will be headed to London and Paris, in addition to Frankfurt, Canada's Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters on Monday.
More than 6,000 Canadians are believed to be in Egypt.
Other Canadians managed to make their way out of Egypt on earlier scheduled flights.
Darrell Helyar, of Montreal, arrived in Cairo on Friday, unaware of the political turmoil. Because a city-wide curfew was in place he struggled to find a taxi and was unable to get to the hotel where he had booked a room.
Eventually, Helyar found a helpful driver who got him safely to a different hotel. But he quickly realized how tense the situation was in the city, and decided to try returning home.
He said his experience in Cairo was terrifying.
"You're seeing burning tires rolling down the street, you're seeing cars overturned, you see people holding weapons, clubs, knives, and they're all trying to get into your taxi," Helyar told Canada AM.
Toronto resident Helena Belina, who was on vacation in Egypt, also had to cut her trip short due to the political upheaval.
"When we left our hotel on the outskirts of Cairo we left very early, 7 or 7:30 and I realized the seriousness of the situation when our driver told us to move to the back of the bus, close the shades and lay low," she told Canada AM.
Despite their experiences, both Belina and Helyar said they would return to Egypt one day to complete their trips.
