By: Mahmoud Salah El Din
Cairo – Mubasher: No official decision has been made to resume touristic flights from Russia to Egypt in February, said Ibrahim Hammouda, undersecretary for the tourism committee at the Egyptian Parliament.
The committee has not received any official confirmation or verbal communication as to when Russian flights will resume, Hammouda told Mubasher via phone on Sunday.
The comment follows Russian news agency Sputnik’s report citing member of parliament Riyad Abdel Sattar saying that the committee had received an official confirmation from the Egyptian ambassador to Moscow, who noted that the first Russian flight to Egypt will take place on 23 February 2017.
The Tourism Committee’s timetable will begin next week, but no topics have been tabled just yet, Hammouda told Mubasher. He denied news of the committee’s meeting with the Egyptian ambassador to Russia and the confirmation that flights between the two countries would resume soon.
Egypt has been working on regaining its footing in tourism by meeting demands from partners across the globe, particularly in terms of safety at Egyptian airports which have suffered strong scrutiny following the Russian plane crash in 2015.
In October 2015, a Russian plane took off from Sharm El Sheikh Airport and was blown up over Sinai. All people on board the jet, mostly Russian nationals, died. After the incident, several countries, including the UK and Russia, suspended flights to Egypt.
Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi
