Russian Federation bans Egypt Air flights

Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia has banned flights by EgyptAir, Egypt’s state-owned airline, to Russian Federation from Saturday, the Interfax news agency said Friday.

The plane crash was the worst air disaster in the history of the civil aviation of Russian Federation and the Soviet. The change follows other flight cancelations and suspensions in the wake of a October 31 crash of a chartered flight bound for St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in which all 224 onboard were killed. They have already banned Russian flights to Egypt, and this week President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, said the ban was likely to last for several months, because it would be impossible to evaluate and radically overhaul Egyptian airport security quickly.

But EgyptAir chairman Fathi Sharif said the company had received instructions from the Russian authorities to halt flights, calling that “unjustifiable”.

Russia’s state aviation agency has banned all EgyptAir flights to Russian Federation, following a previous decision to stop all flights from Russian Federation to Egypt. The Metrojet Airbus A321 was bringing holidaymakers home from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Russia’s latest statement comes after Moscow announced that the United Kingdom, had passed on “certain information” related to the airplane crash.

On Friday, Russia’s national flag carrier, Aeroflot, said it will not fly to Egypt until March 27, 2016.

Moscow said the ban was necessary because of anxieties about security at Egypt’s airports.

The government will continue to support direct return flights by British airlines until the majority of passengers who wish to leave Sharm el-Sheikh have done so, on 17 November 2015.

The restrictions have dealt a severe blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, a main revenue earner, and have been denounced by the Egyptian government which has said the cause of the incident has yet to be determined.