The crash killed all 224 passengers and crew. The United States and Britain said they had intelligence assessments that the plane was bombed by Islamist insurgents.
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On October 31, Kogalymavia airline’s Flight 9268 carrying Russian tourists home from the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh went down about 20 minutes after take-off. That will increase to 14 flights a week – seven from Riyadh and seven from Jeddah – over the next year, SPA said.
Sisi was in Riyadh this week for a summit of Arab and South American states. A number of countries, including Russian Federation, Britain and Germany, suspended flights to Egypt in 2013 as a result of the security situation in the country.
“But on Monday morning we were having breakfast and Thompson must have been putting on extra planes to get people out quickly – we ended up going on a flight on Monday and got home in the early hours of Tuesday”.
“I came here to send a message to investors in Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada”, he said, confirming that the region is still safe for investments.
Cyprus is as well seen as an alternative choice to Egypt, with increasing interest from traveling tourists since the crash in Sinai, as Cyprus Minister of Tourism Giorgos Lakkotrypis told the parliament.
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.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency received its first formal request for information Wednesday from Egyptian authorities about the continuing probe.
“We had obviously booked our time off work, packed all our cases, booked the auto into the airport vehicle park and made all the arrangements and it was not until Friday that it said on the website that we would not be flying out”, she said.
Other Russians remain in Egypt as part of the investigation committee seeking to determine the cause of the crash. Thousands of tourists have left the resort, including Russian and British tourists, who make up the majority of the visitors here.
Egyptian President Sisi landed in Sharm to discuss the repercussions of the crashed Russian passenger jet.
In a holiday spot like Sharm el-Sheikh, many foreigners are also employed in resorts and companies catering to tourists.
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Tourists “have disappeared” from Sharm el-Sheikh following the suspected terror attack, the BBC reports.
