EasyJet has announced that it expects two of its early flights to depart today but said that eight of its planned flights will be prevented from landing.
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A statement on its website read: “We are working with the UK Government at the highest level on a solution”.
In an apparent indication of frustration with easyJet, Downing Street said it was important for airlines to give tourists “accurate information”.
The ambassador is denying that Egypt is blocking the flights. “That would never happen anywhere”.
It follows a similar announcement from Britain, whose tourists are allowed to only take carry-on luggage as they start leaving the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
British officials have told reporters they believe a bomb was placed in the hold of the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt. “They checked the security actions, they were happy with that”, he told a news conference, speaking through an interpreter.
In this Russian Emergency Situations Ministry photo, Russian Emergency Ministry experts work at the crash site of a Russian passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg in Russia that crashed Saturday in Hassana, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, November 2, 2015. The BBC also reports that the intelligence breakthrough came from “intercepted communication between militants in the Sinai Peninsula”.
Russian Federation and Egypt on Thursday dismissed Western suggestions that a terrorist bomb may have caused the crash that killed 224 people, saying the speculation was a rush to judgment.
U.S. President Barack Obama says “it’s certainly possible”. “But it’s certainly possible that there was a bomb on board”, Obama told KIRO radio in Seattle.
And the Kremlin said Britain had not shared the intelligence on which its bomb suspicions were based.
Egypt’s presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef also has said that authorities here wish USA and Britain had “waited for the result of the ongoing investigation”.
But many European governments have already taken steps to protect themselves. It didn’t explain how passengers would be reunited with their luggage. Other theories for the crash include pilot error or a technical malfunction.
The flights from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, where Flight 9268 originated, were to resume with new security measures as USA and British officials say a bomb smuggled on board the plane probably caused Saturday’s crash.
The United Kingdom grounded all flights to and from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula Wednesday, stranding thousands of British tourists.
“If such information exists, and judging by what the Foreign Secretary has said it is, no one has passed it to the Russian side”.
“The investigation team does not have any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis”, Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said, according to the statement. The two men discussed the joint fight against terror.
Travellers waiting in the check-in hall of Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
“The Prime Minister held talks on the situation with President (Abdel Fatah) Sisi and, following further discussions with the airlines and the Egyptians, we have agreed on a package of additional security measures that is being put in place rapidly”.
Almost 40 flights from seven countries, including Russian Federation, were due to land Thursday in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Tourists pass through airport security in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on November 6, 2015. U.S.-based carriers do not fly to the city.
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Moscow, which launched air strikes against Islamist fighters including Islamic State in Syria more than a month ago, says it is premature to reach conclusions that the flight was attacked.
