Egypt: first Russian tourist flights to seaside resorts in six years

Russian tourists arrive at a hotel in Hurgada on August 9, 2021, in the first flight from Russia since October 2015, when a Russian civilian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula.

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Two direct flights from Moscow landed this Monday, August 9 for the first time in six years in the Red Sea.

These are regular flights of the company EgyptAir.

Flights to Egypt in general and the Red Sea in particular had been banned by Moscow after the crash of a Russian charter in October 2015. 224 people were killed by the Airbus explosion over the Sinai following to an Islamist attack according to Moscow. 

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With our correspondent in Cairo

,

Alexandre Buccianti

Russian tourists were greeted with great fanfare at the seaside resorts of Hurgada and Sharm el Sheikh.

Music, folk dances and jasmine necklaces for those the Egyptians consider to be the vanguard of a surging army of Russian tourists.

In 2015, more than two million Russians sunbathe in the Red Sea every year.

The return of these direct flights was a real obstacle course.

The Russians checked security at Egyptian airports around 20 times before allowing Moscow-Cairo and finally Moscow-Red Sea flights in 2018.

However, these are seven weekly flights of the Egyptian national company.

Too expensive and too few flights.

What is eagerly awaited in Egypt are charters.

They were more than twenty on average to land each day in the Red Sea.

Some tour operators are crossing their fingers and evoking a return in September of migratory charters.

inch'Allah! 

To read also: The crash of an airliner in the Sinai leaves no survivors

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