Russian tourists sunbathe and stand in the shallow waters at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
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It was not immediately clear which country would receive the copy of the black box recording to analyse one of the key clues of the investigation into the October 31 disaster, which killed all 224 on board.
The Egyptian economy has been hammered by four years of political turmoil since a popular uprising unseated autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The national carrier now operates eight flights a week to Sharm el-Sheikh, four from Riyadh and four from Jeddah. Many Russian tour operators are facing bankruptcy over refunds to tens of thousands of tourists.
They were due to fly home on Sunday but were told they would they could be delayed.
Moscow has banned all flights to Egypt for at least several months, a severe blow for the tourism industry during the peak season for Russian visitors, while Britain and Ireland have suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh until security improves.
The warnings of a plot have been widely promoted by opinion-makers in print, online and on TV, sometimes hinting and sometimes saying flat-out not purely out of safety concerns for its citizens but because it wants to undermine the country or prevent President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi from making Egypt too strong.
According to Alaa Youssef, spokesman for the presidency, Sisi inspected the airport’s security to ensure all procedures live up to “international standards” in an attempt to quell fears of lax security making attacks easier to carry out.
How much worse can things get in Egypt?
“We continue to work with the United Kingdom government to try and finalise our flying programme for the following days and we will update accordingly when further information becomes available”, Thomson said.
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.
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.
Thomas Cook’s last repatriation flight takes place on Friday.
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Russia, a major source of tourists, announced earlier this week that it was suspending all flights to Egypt pending the investigation in to the crash.
