Russian Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov said on Friday that Cairo International Airport is up to standard in all the aviation’s safety measures, but noting that Hurghada and Sharm el-Shiekh airports still need to improve security to resume flights with Russia.
According to the state-run media outlet Sputnik, Sokolov said that Egypt and Russia will sign documents to resume flights between the two countries and that first flight between Cairo and Moscow is expected to take off in early February 2018.
“Today we can say with confidence that with the first half of February 2018, flights between Russia and Egypt will resume, this can happen if there are not any negative incidents,” Sokolov said, speaking to the television channel Russia 24.
Meanwhile, state-run news network Russia Today reported the agreement for resuming commercial flights between Russian and Egypt will be signed on Friday in the presence of both the Egyptian Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy, and Russia’s and Sokolov.
This comes in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Egypt on Monday.
During the visit, Putin discussed bilateral relations between the two countries with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and signed an agreement to begin the construction of the Dabaa nuclear power plant.
Following the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai in October 2015 — which killed all 224 people on board and was claimed as a terrorist attack by an IS-affiliated group — Russia and Britain suspended flights to the country.
Tourism revenues make up 11.5 percent of the total national GDP of Egypt, according to the ministry of tourism, and it is estimated the suspension cost Egypt’s tourism industry $4 million per day.
The number of Russian tourists to Egypt in 2014, according to the tourism ministry, was 3.16 million, making it the number one visitor country. Britain and German nationals were the second most common visitors to Egypt.
Egypt’s tourism industry has been struggling since the 2011 uprising, which ushered in a long period of political instability that drove away tourists and foreign investors.
