The economic woes have forced the government to devaluate the Egyptian pound against dollar in a move seen as an attempt to bring in much-needed foreign investment.
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The October 31 crash over the Sinai Peninsula that killed all 224 people on board prompted Russian Federation and Britain to repatriate their nationals holidaying in the Red Sea resort.
Everyone applauded when the pilot said “we are safely back in Britain”.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it was “more likely than not” that the Russian plane from Sharm El Sheikh was brought down by a bomb on Saturday, which has caused flights to be grounded.
President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi visited Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday in an attempt to reassure the public following the plane crash.
“On a normal basis we would be 90% full right now, everyone would be working and everyone would be happy”, said Amr Darwish, another business owner.
Although Russian and Egyptian officials were quick to slam the claims as “untrue” and “not possible”, these reassurances seemed to fall on deaf ears as several airlines and countries halted flights to Egypt.
“The lights will not be going out in Sharm al-Sheikh’, he said”.
But the spokesman said that no formal agreement had been struck between Egyptian authorities and the United States for the NTSB to participate officially in Egypt’s investigation of the crash of Metrojet flight 9268, and that no such agreement is imminent.
Ten British flights left the airport on Tuesday night, carrying 2,218 people. It has been waging an insurgency in Sinai, but had so far focused its battle against security forces in the north of the peninsula, hundreds of kilometres from Sharm El Sheikh on its southern tip.
Moscow has said its ban on flights is necessary because of concerns about security at Egypt’s airports. Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium are said to be “monitoring developments” ahead of deciding whether to ground flights scheduled to head to the Egyptian resort town.
Commenting on media reports that Moscow was also mulling suspension of flights to other destinations in the Middle East, Ivanov said that Russian intelligence agencies have made no such advice, but added that Moscow was monitoring the general security situation and airport security in other countries in the region.
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As visitors stranded after the crash of a Russian airliner stream home from Egypt, Sharm El-Sheikh is scrambling to keep its lucrative tourism sector alive.
