Egypt’s airports to implement all Russian security demands soon

Egyptian authorities have implemented most airport security measures demanded by Russia with the remaining ones to be put in place in coming weeks, an aide to the Egyptian interior minister, Hisham Bastawi, said on Friday.

A biometric system of employee access to airports, which monitors the time of arrival and departure of staff, is among the measures to be implemented, according to Bastawi.

“Russian experts during their last visit asked the Egyptian authorities for a number of additional measures, which have been implemented for the most part.”

“Several remaining simple measures will be taken in the coming weeks,” Bastawi told Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper in an interview.

On Thursday, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said that Egyptian authorities were planning to complete the measures to ensure security at the airports by the end of 2016.

Russia grounded flights to and from Egypt after an Airbus A321 plane en route to St. Petersburg crashed soon after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh on 31 October 2015.

All 224 people aboard died as a result of the crash that was classified by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) as a terrorist attack.

The return of Russian flights to Egypt would mean the country could once again receive large numbers of Russian tourists to boost its ailing tourism industry, which is a major source of much needed foreign currency for Cairo.

Source: Sputnik News