The delay in the resumption of commercial flights between Egypt and Russia is due to EgyptAir and Russian national carrier Aeroflot not yet having reached an agreement on aircraft ground handling, Russia's Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said on Monday, according to Reuters. Russia and Egypt could restart talks on checking Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada airports in the spring, after flights to Cairo are resumed, Solokov added. Moscow issued a ban on all civilian flights to Egypt in 2015 following the crash of a Russian Metrojet flight in Sinai shortly after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. Aeroflot and EgyptAir had been in talks to resume flights, but the resumption has been postponed several times. Flights were initially due to resume in February according to a protocol signed in Moscow between the two countries in December. Cairo International Airport authorities received a memo on 16 February from Aeroflot saying the resumption would be postponed for a week, stating that the airline company is waiting for security approvals and necessary permits from Russian authorities. EgyptAir then announced a few days later it will postpone the resumption to April to guarantee flights are sufficiently booked. As of 2015, Russians tourists accounted for about a fifth of foreign vacationers in the country, according to official data.
