Egypt May Lose $280 Million A Month in Tourism Following Sinai Crash

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, meanwhile made a surprise visit to the airport and voiced frustration that Britain had “rushed ahead” of the official investigation into the cause of the crash.

Saudi Arabian Airlines is planning to increase the frequency of its flights from the kingdom to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from February 2016.

Story corrected at 09:48 p.m. The original misstated that the National Transportation Safety Board received its first notification from Egyptian authorities about the probe. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Clapper said, “I wouldn’t rule it out”.

The Egyptian tourism minister said the government will encourage its own citizens to visit other areas of the country, while also hoping to bring in citizens of the Gulf and North Africa to tour Egypt.

An Egyptian-led investigative committee had announced that a sound was caught by the black box just before the disaster, but it said further analysis was needed.

On Tuesday, Guevara el-Gafy, chairman of the South Sinai Travel Agents Association, said: “Losing 40 percent of our clients will lead to losing around 50 percent of the tourism income in Sharm al-Sheikh and South Sinai”.

The devices raising concern were seen equipped to security staff at two hotels and two shopping malls in Sharm el-Sheikh.

USA and British officials said the cause of the October 31 crash, which killed all 224 people on board, was likely a bomb planted on the plane. A spokeswoman said: “Across the resort, airport style scanners, sniffer dogs, body searches, metal detectors, private security, police and CCTV are being used to keep tourists safe”.

Britain’s swift suspension of flights after the Russian plane crash in Sinai has revived old grievances in Egypt, where many accuse the former colonial ruler of acting out of malice and suspect a dark plot against their country.

Representatives for the FBI said that the bureau had offered both Egyptian and Russian crash investigators forensic assistance and other investigative help, but as of Thursday its offers had not been accepted. In its peak in 2010, tourism employed 12 percent of Egypt’s workforce and accounted for approximately 11.3 percent of the country’s GDP, bringing in almost 15 million visitors.

“We will exert maximum efforts to guarantee that”, he said.

But he added the United Kingdom and Russian flight bans were already beginning to hurt the local economy and warned that job losses would only fuel extremism, especially among Egypt’s Bedouin minority. A senior Russian official has said that Moscow’s decision to suspend flights is unlikely to be reversed soon.