No crowds of passengers planning to fly to Egypt at Russian airports - Russian Air Transport Agency
MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) - The stable situation persists at Russian airports, there are no crowds of passengers planning to fly to Egypt there, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.
According to the information of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, up to 78,000 Russian tourists are staying in Egypt, the agency said.
On Saturday, aircraft of Russian airlines are making flights without passengers from Russian cities to Egypt according to the daily schedule: 30 flights to Hurghada, 14 flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, no flights are due in Cairo on November 7 (flights are made four times a week).
"As of 4.30 p.m. nine flights were made from Hurghada to Russia, four flights were made from Sharm el-Sheikh," the Federal Air Transport Agency said.
The agency recalled that passengers, who are about to depart from Egyptian airports, should come to the airport with luggage.
"To pass the passenger and luggage check-in. It is required to attach to each seat of luggage an additional tag with the name, surname, address of a passenger in Russia, flight number, flight date [specified in the air ticket] and the contact phone number. To ensure the security of passengers they are permitted to take only hand luggage on board the aircraft," the Federal Air Transport Agency said in a statement.
It also reported that the luggage would be delivered by Russian Emergencies Ministry's aircraft and transport planes of other Russian air carriers to Moscow airports.
It was reported that on Friday, following a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin the recommendations to suspend air communication with Egypt until causes of the Russian plane A321 crash in Sinai are established. The head of state agreed with these recommendations. Putin instructed the government to work out the mechanisms of implementing the National Anti-Terrorism Committee's recommendations and provide for the return of Russian citizens to the homeland.
A little bit later on Friday, the Transport Ministry instructed the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency to suspend flights to Egypt. The government has formed an operative headquarters to deal with issues related to the suspension of air communication with Egypt led by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
The Kogalymavia airline plane A321 en route from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on October 31. The airliner was carrying 217 passengers and seven crewmembers, all of them died.
