Egypt minister set to sign deal to resume Russian flights- Sources

Russia and Egypt may sign an agreement on Friday to resume Russian flights to Egypt Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and Egyptian sources said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Egypt’s President Abdel al-Sisi in Cairo on Monday to discuss resumption of flights and to sign a deal for a nuclear power plant as part of growing bilateral cooperation.
Egyptian sources did not confirm the date for the signing of the agreement while the TASS news agency cited Russian minister as saying that the two governments may sign the flight resumption deal on Friday.
“We expect that he (the Egyptian minister) will come on Friday,” Sokolov said, according to the RIA news agency.
Asked whether an aviation security protocol with Egypt will be signed, he said: “we expect that it will be signed.”
NAN reports that Russia halted civilian air traffic to Egypt in 2015 after militants detonated a bomb on a Russian Metrojet flight leaving the tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and killing 224 people on board.
The bombing and the Russian suspension were blows to Egypt’s tourism industry, a key source of hard currency.
The industry has been struggling after the upheaval triggered by a 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
The return of Russian flights and tours could be a massive boost to tourist numbers that are still well below the 14.7 million visitors annually Egypt saw in 2010 before the uprising a year later and the unrest that followed. (Reuters/NAN)

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