Russia Resumes Flights to Egyptian Resorts after 6 Years

Russian tourists gather at the Egyptair check-in desk at the Domodedovo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (AP)
Russian tourists gather at the Egyptair check-in desk at the Domodedovo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (AP)
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Russia Resumes Flights to Egyptian Resorts after 6 Years

Russian tourists gather at the Egyptair check-in desk at the Domodedovo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (AP)
Russian tourists gather at the Egyptair check-in desk at the Domodedovo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (AP)

Russia resumed flights to Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea on Monday, ending a ban that had lasted around six years following the bombing of a Russian airliner that killed all 224 people onboard.

Early on Monday morning, EgyptAir flight MS724 took off from Moscow with 300 tourists. Hours later, the Airbus A300-330 landed in Hurghada, a popular Red Sea destination, Egypt’s national carrier said in a statement.

The Russian plane was welcomed by a ceremonial “water salute” on touchdown and Russian tourists, most of them wearing facemasks, were greeted with flowers and balloons upon disembarking.

The statement said EgyptAir would operate seven flights from the Russian capital to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh, on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The first EgyptAir flight from Moscow to Sharm El Sheikh was scheduled for Tuesday, it said.

The Russian state aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya, has cleared eight Russian airlines to operate flights to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh from 43 cities across Russia. However, the list does not include St. Petersburg, the destination of the doomed Russian airliner downed over Sinai.

For now, Rossiya, a subsidiary of the Russia’s state-owned flagship carrier Aeroflot, appears to be the only Russian airline with scheduled flights to the two Egyptian Red Sea resorts from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Its flight FV5361 is scheduled to land in Hurghada early on Monday afternoon and the flight FV5633 is to land in Sharm El Sheikh an hour and a half later.

Other Russian airlines cleared to operate flights from Moscow to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh — such as Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda and S7 Airlines, Russia’s largest privately owned carrier — have no flights scheduled for the coming days, according to their websites.

The development comes a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled his order suspending the flights after the 2015 disaster.

Russia’s ambassador to Egypt, Georgy Borisenko, said the decision to resume flights was not an easy one for Moscow.

“However, we ascertained that in recent years Egypt’s airports and resorts have dramatically increased security measures. Therefore, we expect that Russian tourists, who remember the traditional Egyptian hospitality well and miss the Red Sea very much, will have a safe and comfortable stay,” Borisenko was quoted by the state RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Britain, another major source of visitors to Egypt which had also suspended flights to Sharm El Sheikh in the wake of the disaster, lifted its restrictions in October 2019.

The resumption of flights will be key for Egypt’s tourism sector, which was dealt another blow by the coronavirus pandemic over the past year. Authorities have kept looser restrictions in Red Sea towns, trying to attract foreign visitors. But they have mandated vaccinations for workers in the tourism sector in Red Sea resorts, though a vaccination campaign has been slow elsewhere in Egypt. All foreign visitors, however, have to show a negative PCR test and wear facemasks.

Prior to the ban, Russians were the top visitors to Egypt, numbering about 3 million tourists in 2014.



World Food Program Condemns Israeli Attack on Its Gaza Convoy

People and first responders inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Saraya area in al-Rimal in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
People and first responders inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Saraya area in al-Rimal in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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World Food Program Condemns Israeli Attack on Its Gaza Convoy

People and first responders inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Saraya area in al-Rimal in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
People and first responders inspect the rubble of a collapsed residential building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in the Saraya area in al-Rimal in central Gaza City on January 4, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The UN World Food Program said on Monday that Israeli forces had opened fire on one of its convoys in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza in what it called a "horrifying incident".

The agency said the convoy of three vehicles carrying eight staff members from central Gaza to Gaza City in the north was struck by 16 bullets near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on Sunday, causing no injuries but immobilizing the convoy.

The vehicles were clearly marked and had received prior security clearances from Israeli authorities, a WFP statement said.

"The World Food Program (WFP) strongly condemns the horrifying incident on January 5," it said.

"This unacceptable event is just the latest example of the complex and dangerous working environment that WFP and other agencies are operating in today," WFP said, calling for improvements in security conditions to allow aid to continue.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

International aid agencies working to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have frequently accused Israeli forces of hampering or threatening their operations amid Israel's campaign to wipe out Hamas fighters.