Russian and Egyptian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed in a telephone conversation on Friday morning on the full resumption of air service between the two countries, including resorts. This was reported by Bassam Rada, an official spokesman for the office of the Egyptian head of state.
According to him, "the conversation between the two leaders dealt with all issues of bilateral relations, primarily related to cooperation in the field of tourism." "An agreement was reached on the resumption of air service in full between the airports of the two countries, including Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, after successful joint cooperation in this regard and based on the standards of safety and comfort provided by Egyptian airports for tourists."
The Egyptian leader, Rada noted, welcoming the return of air links, "expressed the hope that this decision will give impetus to the further development of bilateral relations between the two countries." No exact dates for the resumption of flights were given in the communiqué. During the conversation, the sides also discussed investment cooperation between the countries, the situation in Libya and the controversial dam in Ethiopia.
Air traffic between Russia and Egypt was completely interrupted in November 2015 after the crash of a plane of the Russian company Kogalymavia flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in Sinai. There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board, all of whom died. The FSB qualified the incident as a terrorist attack.
In January 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree resuming regular flights to Cairo. The first flight from Moscow took place four months later, in April. Charter flights to Egyptian resort areas are still closed. In recent years, Egypt has improved the system of screening, control and inspection of passengers and baggage, as well as significantly modernized the airport infrastructure.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS