Russia wants to restore flights to Egypt, but it will only do so when it is confident that Egyptian airports can meet security requirements, said Russia's minister of transport, Maxim Sokolov, on Thursday. Sokolov told Russian media that Russia will not resume flights to and from Egypt before the end of 2015, and resuming flights next year depends on the progress of joint work with Egyptian authorities. "This year, I can assure you, it will not occur. We will be working on it next year," Maksim Sokolov told journalists. The minister's statements conflict with media reports said that flights between the two countries could be resumed by the end of 2015. The Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation told Daily News Egypt that "negotiations are being held to resume flights before the start of the New Year." However, success in this regard could not be guaranteed, said a ministry official. A source in the Tourism Ministry told Daily News Egypt that the return of the trips won't be limited to Russian flights, but will include British flights as well. Egypt Air has submitted an aviation safety plan to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation), seeking approval to resume direct flights. "Rosaviation received an aviation security programme from Egypt Air. Considering all the risks and threats, the programme is being examined very carefully," Rosaviation officials told local media in Russian. The agency did not specify how long it would take to review the programme. Vladimir Chertok, deputy-head of Russia's transport watchdog Rostransnadzor, said on Thursday that additional security measures at Egyptian airports could lead to double passenger and luggage checks. "There are different aspects. There can be thorough checks – i.e. once Egyptian security services have made a check, then we make a repeat check of passengers and fully examine the luggage," Russian official agency TASS quoted him as saying. He added that many problems remain related to the cleaning of an airliner, the placement of the luggage on board – i.e. the functions performed by the local personnel – and it is very difficult to control all this. We always see these weak points and try to remove them. Egypt's Ambassador to Russia, Mohammed Al-Badri, expressed hopes that Russian flights to Egypt will be resumed. Speaking to a press conference on Tuesday, Al-Badri said that negotiations and discussions between Egypt and Russia have not stopped. "Contacts continue to exist. We are discussing, talking about the possibility of overcoming this problem. We hope that these efforts will lead to a reasonable resolution of the issue, to the resumption of the Russian flights to Egypt," he said. Around 100,000 Russian tourists are expected to visit Egypt once the suspension is cancelled, according to Dimitry Gorin, the deputy-head of the Russian Tourism Companies' Union. "[Around] 300,000 Russian tourists used to visit Egypt every month; we expect that 100,000 will visit Egypt immediately after the resumption of the flights." Gorin expected that the number of Russian tourists visiting Egypt will increase, especially since tourism packages to Turkey have been suspended. Additional reporting by Abdel Razek Al-Shuwekhi
