Russian Delegation to Inspect Hurghada's Airport to Discuss Flights Resumption

On Wednesday, Egyptian aviation authorities said that Russia’s expert team is scheduled to inspect the Hurghada International Airport’s security on January 27.

According to the authorities, the Russian specialists will check the airport’s security systems, in particular, they will inspect terminal 2’s operation and new systems for ensuring the safety of passengers and baggage screening.

They added that the experts are going to check the airport at all stages of its activities, ranging from the entrance to the terminal to loading and dispatching aircraft. Russia’s experts will stay in Egypt for five days.

[caption id="attachment_204168" align="alignnone" width="700"] Russian Delegation to Inspect Hurghada's Airport to Discuss Flights Resumption[/caption]

In January 2020, a delegation of Russian specialists conducted the last inspection of the Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh’s airports. It was not their first visit, but back then Cairo expected that it would be the last one before drawing up a final report on the Egyptian airports’ security and the possible resumption of charter flights to Russian cities.

In late November 2020, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, who co-chairs the Russian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, told TASS that the sides would discuss the resumption of charter flights to Egypt’s resort cities as early as the challenges related to COVID-19 were resolved. "The Egyptian colleagues have done a lot to modernize the aviation security system in Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh," he said. "We assume that as the challenges related to COVID-19 fade away, we will return to the discussion of this point, taking into account aviation security issues, as I said."

Air traffic between Russia and Egypt was completely suspended in November 2015, after the Russian airplane crashed in Sinai during the flight from Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All 217 passengers and seven crew members died. Russia’s Federal Security Service announced that the incident was a terrorist attack.

In January 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree resuming regular air traffic with Cairo. The first flight from Moscow took off in April of the same year. Charter flights to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh are still closed. Over the past years, Egypt has improved the system of screening, monitoring and checking passengers and luggage, as well as significantly upgraded the airports’ infrastructure.