Britain and Russia halt tourist flights to Egypt

EasyJet announced on Friday that the Egyptian authorities had suspended all flights heading to Sharm Al-Shaikh Airport to take stranded British tourists back to the UK, Quds Press has reported. The suspension came just hours after the British government and the Egyptian aviation ministry had resumed flights from the Sinai resort.

In a statement posted on its website, EasyJet said that it had been working with the British government to sort out the problem. Following the Egyptian president’s visit to Britain, Downing Street said that it had forged an agreement with the authorities in Cairo over a new package of security measures in Sharm Al-Sheikh Airport to secure the return of British tourists.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Civil Aviation, Hussam Kamal, flights at the airport had been regular amid “tight security measures” since Friday morning. In a statement, the ministry revealed that 74 flights should have taken off from the airport on Friday, including 29 carrying tourists back to Britain. The minister added that 72 international flights would have landed at Sharm Al-Shaikh during the day, including 27 from Russia.

However, according to reports from Alkhaleejonline.com, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided on Friday to suspend all Russian flights heading to Egypt. His decision was based on recommendations by his intelligence agency, whose director, Alexander Bortnikov, told reporters that flights were best suspended “until we know the real reasons behind what happened in Sinai.”

The official Russian news agency Interfax said that Putin issued directions to reinforce cooperation with Egypt to guarantee the safety of flights to and from Egypt. He also ordered officials to find a mechanism to allow Russian citizens to get home from Egypt, where around 45,000 are believed to be on holiday at the moment.