On October 1 Russian flights to Egypt's Red Sea will resume
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, flights from the country to both Red Sea cities were halted in March, a hiatus that hit Egypt's economy hard since the two warring countries account for about 30 per cent of its incoming tourists every year. According to Aeroflot’s online booking system, there will be a daily flight to Sharm El Sheikh and another to Hurghada starting on October 1. Although Cairo-bound flights from the Russian city of Sochi were allowed to resume in April, as per Russian state media, there was a marked drop in the number of incoming Russian and Ukrainian tourists this year compared to last, a July statement from Egypt’ s Cabinet said. In February, Russia’s ambassador to Egypt issued a statement that 125,000 tourists from his country had visited various Egyptian cities in the first two weeks of 2022, a number which had made Egypt’s tourism sector hopeful that it would find a much-needed respite from the tourism dry spell the country went through in 2020