Rossiya prepares to resume ops to Egyptian resorts

Rossiya (FV, St. Petersburg) will launch scheduled flights from Moscow to the Egyptian Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh from August 9, the necessary permits for which have already been obtained, sources at the Russian carrier told the news agency TASS and the newspaper Izvestia on July 29.

Rossiya had received “the appropriate permits” on the basis of a decision by the Emergency Response Centre and Russia’s civil aviation regulator (Rosaviatsia) for scheduled flights to take place between the Russian capital and the resort cities, and traffic will resume with the frequency of 5x weekly flights on each route.

Thus far, just the Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) subsidiary will be able to operate the routes from the Russian side. Only formal procedures are needed before an official announcement can be made, namely a meeting of the interdepartmental commission under the Ministry of Transport on the admission of airlines to international flights, to take place in the coming days.

A source at the ministry told Izvestia that Rossiya had the best chance of receiving permission to conduct all of the frequencies, as it is the only Russian carrier allowed to operate scheduled flights from Moscow to Egypt’s resorts while others are authorised to operate only charter flights.

From the Egyptian side, two airlines have been appointed, EgyptAir (MS, Cairo Int’l) and low-cost carrier FlyEgypt (FT, Cairo Int’l), according to a letter that Ashraf Nowier, president of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, sent to Rosaviatsia on bilateral cooperation on March 18, posted on Rosaviatsia’s website.

Izvestia’s source at Russia’s Ministry of Transport did not rule out that a second Russian carrier may also be appointed but declined to name it.

As previously reported, Russia lifted its 2015 ban on commercial flights to Egypt’s resorts in early July. Rosaviatsia then denied all 231 requests for traffic rights to Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh, but on July 23 allowed a total of 20 weekly frequencies to be carried out to the resorts of Egypt, up to ten each courtesy of Russian and Egyptian carriers. Local media in Egypt reported that the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority had received an official notification from Russia to that effect on July 25.