Russia agrees to resume commercial flights to Egypt

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved the resumption of regular air traffic between Moscow and Cairo after a two-year suspension, the state-run Sputnik news agency reported yesterday. The agency quoted a document published on the Russian government website.

Putin’s approval was effective from 2 January, though the document gave no timeline for the actual resumption of the service. Flights to and from Cairo have been given the go-ahead, but not other Egyptian destinations.

The move comes a few weeks after a cooperation protocol was signed on 15 December between Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and Egypt’s Minister of Civil Aviation, Sherif Fathi. They agreed that direct flights between Moscow and Cairo should resume in February.

Egyptian officials said that negotiations on resuming charter flights from Russia to Egypt’s Red Sea resort cities of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, both of which are popular with Russian tourists, are planned to take place in April.

Read: Russia signs aviation safety agreement with Egypt in move to resume flights

Russia suspended all passenger flights to and from Egypt in November 2015 after an Airbus A321 plane crashed over the country’s Sinai Peninsula, en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board were killed in the crash, for which Daesh claimed responsibility.

The ban dealt a blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, a major source of foreign currency reserves, with tourist numbers dropping by some 50 per cent in the first half year following the Airbus incident. According to official figures, Russians were the largest single tourist group in Egypt, making up around 20 per cent of all holiday-makers in 2015. Since then, Egypt has been taking serious measures to boost security in all of the country’s airports.