The resumption of Russian flights to Egypt will be possible in late April or early May this year, Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) announced on Tuesday.
The announcement made after a Russian security delegation made on Monday an inspected tour of Egypt’s Hurghada International Airport and praised the beefed-up security measures taken in Terminal 2.
The delegation included eight Russian security, inspection, and aviation experts. The visit was part of the process for the resumption of regular charter flights from Russia to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts.
Egyptian authorities have recently opened Terminal 2 after all development and construction works were completed to bolster security and raise efficiency at Hurghada Airport in accordance with international standards. These works included the installation of a new CTX, or a computer tomography x-ray, which functions as an explosive detection device.
The new additions to the terminal were requested by foreign inspection committees that previously visited the airport.
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,
Flights to Egypt from Russia were suspended after a Russian plane crashed into the Sinai desert in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Islamic State announced at that time that it brought down the plane with a bomb smuggled inside a fizzy drink can.
Since the tourist jet crash, Egypt has boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian conditions to lift the flight ban.
Officials from Cairo and Moscow 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.
