Russian Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov announced on Friday that Egypt and Russia will sign in the Russian capital later today the protocols for resuming flights between Moscow and Cairo in the first half of February 2018. Sokolov added that Cairo International Airport satisfies all the requirements for aviation security. Flights between Russia and Egypt were halted in 2015 following the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board. Since the crash, Egypt has been implementing tighter security measures in its airports to meet Russian demands, with the aim of restoring Russian tourism. The Russian minister added that security at airports in Egypt's Red Sea resorts “need more work,” adding that this will be a mission for the upcoming year. Egypt's Minister of Aviation Sherif Fathy travelled to Moscow on Thursday to sign the protocols with his Russian counterpart. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo for the signing of the deal to construct the Dabaa nuclear power plant as well as discuss resuming flights. The downing of the Russian flight has dealt a blow to Egypt's tourism industry, a major source of hard currency, with the number of tourists dropping by some 50 percent in the first half of 2016 year-on-year. Russians used to make up the largest single tourist group in Egypt, contributing to about a fifth of foreign vacationers in the country as of 2015, according to official data.
