Egypt implemented 90pct of security measures for resumption of Russian flights: Russian Federation Council chairwoman

Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said on Saturday that Egyptian authorities have met 90 percent of the required procedures to resume the Russian flights to Egypt.

Matviyenko said that Russian and Egyptian aviation authorities have done “colossal work” to implement the new security measures at Egypt's airports.

“I can say that this plan is more than 90 percent complete, and only four items remain before the plan is fully completed,” Matviyenko said.

Matviyenko arrived in Egypt on Friday for a two-day visit to include meetings with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

The Russian government signed in February an aviation safety protocol with Egypt to monitor the implementation of airport safety measures as part of a series of steps to pave the way for the resumption of flights between the two countries.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this year that “the date of the resumption of flights depends on the implementation of aviation safety requirements by the Egyptian side.”

Russia has carried out a series of inspections of Egyptian airports since the flight suspension in October 2015, when a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

The Russian Federal Security Service classified the air disaster, the deadliest in Russian history, as a terrorist attack. The crash has been claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Egyptian investigations have not yet determined the cause of the crash

Source: Ahram online