Turkish Airlines to resume flights to Sharm el-Sheikh after a year

Turkish Airlines is set to resume its flights from Istanbul to Sharm el-Sheikh following nearly a year’s hiatus since the Russian plane crash in Sinai, the Turkish Embassy in Cairo announced Wednesday.

The airline, which holds Star Alliance membership, will charter four trips a week on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, starting September 10.

Following the crash of the Russian aircraft on October 31, 2015, which killed all 224 people on board, Turkish Airlines suspended its flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh, and evacuated Turkish passengers from the resort town through Amman, Jordan.

Turkey, Russia and a number of European countries introduced travel restrictions and flight bans to Egypt following the Russian plane crash, causing more damage to Egypt’s already ailing tourism industry.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt’s famous resort destination, situated between the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea, has been losing US$250 million a month since October 2015, according to Khaled Fouda, the governor of South Sinai.

“The [lost revenues] could have been used to build factories or establish companies [in Sharm el-Sheikh] and create jobs,” Fouda told the state-owned Middle East News Agency.

Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation Sherif Fathy told reporters on Monday that Russia will likely resume flights to Egypt starting October and that a Russian delegation of experts would visit Egypt by the end of the month to evaluate its airport security regulations.