Egypt seeks return of Russian tourists before end of 2016
October 22, 2016, 6:14 pm

Egyptian airports must upgrade their security measures if Russian tourists are to return, Moscow officials have said [Xinhua]

Hesham Bastawi said a biometric employee-access system, which monitors the time of arrival and departure of staff, is among the measures to be implemented.

Bastawi added that any remaining measures will be put in place in coming weeks.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov met with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi last month and said that Moscow would be ready to resume commercial flights carrying Russian tourists “if the Egyptian airports confirm the required level of safety,” reported Russian news agency TASS.

During his visit Sokolov also met with the Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation to discuss security measures and mechanisms, adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), that Cairo will have to follow after flights are resumed, a statement from the ministry said.

Russia halted all commercial flights to and from Egypt after an Airbus 321 headed to St. Petersburg crashed soon after taking off from the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh almost exactly one year ago in what is largely believed to be a terrorist attack.

All 224 people aboard the flight died as a result of the crash.

Investigations into the matter are still ongoing in Cairo, and a delegation of Russian investigators is currently working in cooperation with Egypt’s general prosecution to issue a final report on the crash.

However, Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov said shortly after the crash that investigators had found traces of foreign-made explosives amid the debris.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies