Low-cost airline EasyJet announced that it would resume flights between the UK and Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh in June, after a hiatus of nearly five years.
EasyJet said it will operate two weekly flights from Manchester to Sharm el-Sheikh beginning in June, and from September it will begin operating two flights from Gatwick in London to the resort city.
Last October, the British government canceled a travel ban to Sharm el-Sheikh airport that had been in effect since 2015, when a Russian passenger plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after take-off, killing all 224 people on board.
On December 19, the first UK flight to Sharm el-Sheikh since the 2015 ban landed at Sharm El-Sheikh International airport.
The UK was once a leading market for the Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh. However, the country only recorded a 4 percent increase in arrivals between 2017 and 2018 due to the flight ban, according to a report by the Arabian Travel Market (ATM).
On January 11, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anany announced that the ministry is set to roll out a new program called “Come to Egypt”, which will establish new flight routes linking the Red Sea resort towns of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh with Luxor, houses the Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings, and other ancient monuments.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
