Russia’s Domodedovo Airport announced on Monday its schedule for February flights, which included the launch of the first flight to Cairo International Airport in years on February 6.
The schedule includes six flights a week, on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
The February 6 flight will be the first between the two countries since flights were suspended following the downing of Russian carrier Metrojet in Sinai, on its way from Sharm el-Sheikh to the Russian city of St. Petersburg, on October 31, 2015.
The incident claimed the lives of all 217 passengers and seven crew-members onboard. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) later designated the incident as a terrorist attack.
As a precondition for the resumption of flights, Russia called for considerably tightening security measures at Egyptian airports.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi signed a cooperation agreement on civil aviation security in December for the resumption of flights between the two countries.
According to the agreement, the two companies allowed to work between the two countries are the Russian Aeroflot and the Egyptian EgyptAir, which has not yet decided when to resume its flights to Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved in January the resumption of regular air traffic between Moscow and Cairo, taking effect from January 2. However, no official timeline for the resumption was announced.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday that an aviation security agreement between Russia and Egypt has been prepared, and Moscow expects Cairo to sign it.
“Initially, we said that there should be a security agreement,” he said. “It has been prepared. I believe that Egypt is ready to sign it, otherwise the discussion would not have resumed,” Dvorkovich told TASS.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
