The Turkish Embassy in Cairo said on Wednesday that flights between Turkey and Egypt's resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh would resume on 10 September. In early August, Turkish Airlines told Ahram Online that the first flight from Istanbul to Sharm El-Sheikh will leave on 10 September at 23:30 local time. Turkish Airlines is set to operate four flights per week to and from the Egyptian resort. Since November 2015, flights from Istanbul to Sharm El-Sheikh have been suspended following the downing of a Russian airliner over central Sinai in October that year, killing all 224 people on board. A number of European airlines and governments introduced restrictions on flights to Sharm El-Sheikh over security concerns after the Russian airliner disaster. The airline's downing was a blow to Egypt's already ailing tourism industry. The number of tourists coming to Egypt dropped by 50 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year, according to Egypt's tourism authority. Tourism revenues during that period witnessed a drop of 60 percent compared to 2015.
