Egypt and Russian Federation resume direct flights after two-year suspension

Egypt and Russian Federation resumed direct flights between Cairo and Moscow on Thursday after more than two years and a half of suspension.

The first two and a half years Aeroflot flight from Sheremetyevo flew to Cairo on 11 April and landed safely in the Egyptian capital, reports the Chronicle.info with link to the Correspondent.

Egypt's flagship airline EgyptAir said a Moscow-bound flight took off from Cairo on Thursday, and that it will operate three such flights a week. Egypt's tourism industry had already been weakened by years of unrest followed the 2011 uprising.

"It is surely a promising step and a very good beginning".

A total of six flights per week are planned to Moscow.

Moscow suspended flights after the 2015 attack, which killed all 224 people on board and was claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.

Egypt has sought to improve airport security since the 2015 attack, spending millions of dollars and bringing in foreign experts for inspections.

Egypt and Russian Federation have resumed direct flights after a halt of over two years.

While Russia said the plane was brought down by a bomb, Egyptian authorities insisted that an investigation into the incident was still going on.

"Chinese, British, French and Italian tourists like cultural tourism besides beach resorts, so a discount for worldwide flights to Cairo will work for them, but Russian tourists mainly prefer the beaches so the discount should be extended to internal flights to Egyptian resorts", he explained.

Egypt has kept Rafah largely sealed off since 2013, after the coup against Egypt's elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.