From Monday, August 9, Russia will restart flights to Egypt’s resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, as well as the Dominican Republic, Moldova, and Bahrain, TASS reports. The appropriate decision had already been reached by the operational headquarters for the coronavirus battle.
Flights to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh will be conducted five times each week.
Earlier, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev told reporters that his ministry intends to expand the number of flights after a panel of Russian specialists reached a favorable judgment.
Aeroflot, Pobeda, S7, Smartavia, Nordstar, Ural Airlines, Azur Air, Nordwind, and Royal Flight were granted permission to operate flights from Moscow and Russian areas to Egyptian destinations on Friday. If the authorities decide to increase the frequency of flights, they will be allowed to use these licenses.
Egyptian airlines have previously declared plans to operate flights between Arab Republic resorts and Russia. EgyptAir announced on Sunday evening the addition of seven additional weekly flights beginning August 9, four to Hurghada and three to Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Egyptian tourist sector was initially impacted by the 2010s’ domestic political instability. Following the 2015 explosion of a Russian passenger aircraft over Sinai, Russia halted flights to Egypt. During the pandemic’s quarantine, local tourism lost up to $1 billion each month.
However, it was able to achieve a steady increase this year: in January, 300,000 people visited the nation, and by the end of April, this figure had risen to 520,000, according to local officials. Despite the challenges, Egypt aims to re-establish the pre-crisis tourist traffic, when more than 13 million Russians visited the country in a single year.
After a Russian aircraft crashed over the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people, air communication between Russia and Egypt was halted in 2015. One of the terrorist organizations claimed responsibility for the tragedy. Flights from Russia to Cairo resumed in 2018, following the upgrading of security procedures at the Cairo airport.
In April of this year, the Russian Federation and Egypt’s presidents agreed to resume flights between Russian towns and Red Sea destinations Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. Previously, many delegations of Russian aviation security specialists visited the airports of Egyptian resorts.
Russian airlines will also operate two flights per week between Moscow and Manama (Bahrain), three flights per week between Moscow and Punta Cana, three flights per week between Moscow and La Romana, three flights per week between Moscow and Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), and three flights per week between Moscow and Chisinau (Moldova).
