Russia bans Egyptian planes
Print Edition
RUSSIA’S state aviation agency yesterday banned Egypt’s national carrier from flying to Russia, a move that follows the suspension of all Russian flights to Egypt after a deadly crash.
Rosaviatsiya yesterday formally notified Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, where Egypt Air flights arrive, that the ban is effective starting today, said airport spokesman Alexander Vlasov.
The aviation agency didn’t give a reason for the ban, which follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt after the October 31 crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt that killed all 224 people on board.
Moscow said the ban was necessary because of concerns about security at Egypt’s airports.
Officials from the United States and Britain have cited intelligence reports saying the plane was brought down by a bomb on board shortly after it took off from Sharm al-Sheikh en route to Saint Petersburg.
Russia and Egypt, however, said the statements were premature as the official crash probe has not concluded.
On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, said the flight ban will last for at least several months, a severe blow to Egypt’s struggling tourism industries that depend on Russian tourists for a large share of their revenue.
Russia’s national flag carrier, Aeroflot, said yesterday it will not fly to Egypt until March 27, 2016.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has suspended tourist flights to Egypt due to safety concerns, Kazakh tourist companies and an airline said yesterday.
Tez Tour Kazakhstan, one of Kazakhstan’s leading tourist firms, said in a statement to its clients that tourist flights to Egypt had been stopped by an order from the Central Asian nation’s Civil Aviation Committee.
Kazakh airline Scat, the only Kazakh carrier offering charter flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, said the next flight on Tuesday would be made only to evacuate the people it took there last Saturday.
“We have received a request from tourist firms to stop flights because of a decline in demand for the route,” said Scat spokeswoman Viktoria Ulyanova.
Tez Tour said it had sent its clients a copy of the telegram it had received from the state aviation authority, which said it had conducted a safety assessment, finding “a high level of threat to aviation security for Kazakhstan’s airlines flying to Egypt.”
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