Russian delegation to visit Egypt for airport inspections Aug 29

Wednesday 17-08-2016 02:49 PM

Relatives of victims of a Russian airliner which crashed in Egypt/ Reuters

CAIRO, Aug 17 (Aswat Masriya) - A security delegation is due to arrive in Egypt on Aug 29 to begin evaluating security levels in the Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh airports, Ismail Aboul Ghar, the head of the Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation said on Wednesday.

The step is to be the first towards reviving Russian tourism back into Egypt since flights from Moscow were suspended last October after a Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. The plane was heading from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in Russia.

Aboul Ghar stated that Egypt's airports are now ready for the security inspections and that all the Russian airport security demands have been implemented.

Last June, Egyptian officials stated they were waiting for the arrival of a Russian delegation to inspect the security measures adopted in Egypt's airports. Meanwhile, Moscow said it had not received any response from Cairo on its recommendations.

 

Russia believes that a "terrorist act" was behind the plane crash, while Egypt denies the claim, maintaining that there is no evidence yet.

Egypt's tourism industry, a vital source of foreign currency, has been hit hard since the crash. According to a report by the state's official statistics agency CAPMAS released earlier this month, Egypt lost over half of its tourists last May.

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