Ukraine flights to Egypt resume Friday after 2-year halt

CAIRO - 6 April 2018: Cairo International Airport received the first flight coming from Kiev, Ukraine, in two years on Friday; carrying on board 168 tourists.

Flights coming from the Ukraine seized after a plane crashed in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Sources from the Ministry of Civil Aviation that the Ukraine is set to schedule four flights to Egypt weekly as a start; the number of weekly flights is expected to increase gradually.

Similarly, the first Egyptian flight to Moscow will take off from Cairo International Airport on Thursday, April 12, sources told Egypt Today on Friday.

The sources added that Russian flights by Aeroflot Airlines will arrive in Egypt by Wednesday, April 11. The resumption of flights between the two countries comes after a long time of suspension.

On March 12, Russian TASS news agency reported that Russia's Aeroflot will resume regular flights from Moscow to Cairo on April 11.

A source close to the talks between the two countries told the Russian news agency that Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and Aeroflot signed a service agreement with EgyptAir, Egypt’s flag carrier airline, on providing security services at Cairo International Airport.

The Russian authorities had previously stated that flights between Cairo and Moscow would resume in late March or early April, according to Sputnik.

In October 2015, Russia suspended civilian air traffic to Egypt after a bomb was detonated on a Russian charter plane over Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. Russia qualified the incident as a terrorist attack.

Since the crash, Egypt has been implementing new, tighter security measures at all of its airports to meet the Russian demands necessary for the resumption of flights, with multiple visits from Russian security delegations to observe changes implemented by the government.