Russia may recommence flights to Egypt’s resorts soon

Flights from Russia to Egypt’s popular Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada may be fully resumed soon, a Russian Federation Council official announced.

Russia suspended air traffic with Egypt in October 2015 after the crash of a Russian passenger flight from Egypt’s popular tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh killed all 224 people on board. However, flights were resumed from and to the capital Cairo in April 2018, ending a more than two-and-a-half-year suspension.

“Now the flights, at least en route from Moscow to Cairo, have been fully resumed. As for other popular routes, we are close to also resuming these routes in full in accordance with [both] sides’ interests,” the council’s Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Since the tourist jet crash, Egypt has boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian conditions on the lifting of the flight ban.

Officials from the two countries have held a series of talks to discuss the resumption of flights to the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, two of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists.

The flight suspension hit hard Egypt’s tourism industry, a key source of foreign currency.

source: MENA