MOSCOW/CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) Russian aviation security experts arrived in Egypt on Sunday to inspect the passenger and baggage screening procedures at the airports in the resort towns of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, informed sources in Egypt told Sputnik.
"The delegation from Russia has arrived to check the security measures at the Hurghada airport, it will begin work on Monday. The delegation will check the procedure for checking baggage and passengers, as well as other measures related to aviation security," the source said.
Another source told Sputnik that the Russian aviation security experts have also arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh. The inspectors' work will continue until January 25.
It was added that upon Russian specialists' return to Cairo, they would meet with Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation Montaser Manna.
The current visit is the first after the appointment of the new minister of civil aviation, Mohamed Manar Anba, in Egypt last month.
Russia suspended flights to and from Egypt after an Airbus A321 plane crashed over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015 � en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg � resulting in all 224 people on board being killed. Russia qualified the incident as a terrorist attack and suggested that Egypt should step up security measures so that air traffic could resume. Other countries followed suit.
In 2018, Russia resumed direct flights from Moscow to Cairo, but the ban on flights to tourist destination spots such as Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh remained in place.
Tourism is one of the main contributors to the Egyptian budget. Before the tragic crash, the tourism industry accounted for over 11 percent of the nation's GDP and provided more than 14 percent of foreign exchange earnings to the treasury. Russia contributed the most tourists to Egypt, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France.
