Putin talks about “continuing work” on returning charters to Egypt’s resorts
Regular flights between Moscow and Cairo resumed this week. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the process of resuming “other destinations to Egypt” would continue.
Industry experts are confident that the opening of flights will provide an opportunity to study the quality of aviation security measures in Egypt, and will contribute to the closer dialogue on charters. Dates for negotiations on this topic have not yet been set.
Supervisory authorities are going to inspect the airports of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, but without exact dates. The complication of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East also does not help mass transportation to return to its former volumes.
Representatives of the tourism industry believe that the process of permitting charters can be delayed for a period of 3 months to six months. Charters to Egypt, at least from the regions, do not need to wait until next year.
Optimism specialists were able to give the speech of Vladimir Putin, who at the presentation of credentials from the ambassadors of a number of foreign countries in the Kremlin noted the fact of the opening of regular flights between the capitals of the two countries, and assured that “work to restore other routes [to Egypt — approx. ed.] will continue.”
Aeroflot said 124 tickets had been booked for the first flight to Cairo. On the next flights, loading was more than 85%. In general, about 4,000 tickets were sold for Moscow-Cairo flights until the end of the summer navigation.
At the time of the start of transportation and until the end of the summer schedule for flights from Moscow to Cairo, the carrier booked about 3,750 seats, from Cairo to Moscow - more than 3,700. Experts assessed the volume and depth of sales of Aeroflot on Cairo flights as “good”. Considering the carrying capacity of the A320.
In the Egyptian media, flights from Russia are the topic of “number one”, the event is commented on by politicians, hoteliers, tourist business – all are waiting for charters.
The opening of the Cairo-Moscow flight gave the Egyptians a reason to talk again about the importance of Russian tourist flow. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Egypt, up to 2015, the country was visited annually by 2-5-3 million Russians, which was a third of incoming traffic to the country. In 2014, Russian tourism provided Iran with $2.5 billion in revenue.
During the peak periods (New Year and May holidays), Russian tourism accounted for 55 to 60% of the tourist flow of the resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada.
According to information: atorus