Cairo International Airport authorities received a memo on Friday from Russian national carrier Aeroflot on the postponement of a planned resumption of Russian flights to the airport for a week due to technical reasons, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. According to a protocol signed in Moscow between Egyptian Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy and Russian Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov in December, direct flights between Moscow and Cairo, which were suspended by Russian authorities in 2015, were set to resume in early February, before the date was pushed to the middle of the month and now to late February. "Aeroflot is currently waiting on security approvals and necessary permits to resume flights to Cairo from Russian authorities," read the memo, Al-Ahram reported. Another round of talks between Egyptian and Russian officials is planned to take place in April to discuss the resumption of charter flights from Russia to the Red Sea resort cities of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh. Moscow grounded all commercial passenger flights to Egypt in late 2015 over security concerns after a Russian Airbus A321 crashed in Sinai shortly after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh. All 224 people on board were killed in the crash. Egypt has since boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian requests. Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the resumption of commercial air traffic between Russia and Cairo. Russians travelers 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.
