Hurghada International Airport on Friday received the first charter flight from the East Midlands Airport carrying 275 tourists after such flights from the airport were halted two years ago.
The new flight is scheduled to be operated on a weekly basis every Friday until April 27 and flights will resume again in November to increase to two flights per week.
The British company Thomas Cook decided to increase the number of flights for the third time to Hurghada airport from six flights to 14 and then to 24 flights per week starting from the summer tourist season to cover various British airports, in addition to two weekly flights to Marsa Alam International Airport, tourist sources in the Red Sea governorate told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
According to the monthly statistics issued by the Chamber of Tourism, Hurghada International Airport received 83,226 German tourists last January.
Ukrainians visiting Hurghada came in second place with 16,000 tourists. The British came in third place with 12,350 tourists.
Hungarian, Polish and Dutch nationalities saw an increase in the number of visitors to Hurghada. The average occupancy rates range from 35 to 50 percent in Red Sea hotels.
Egypt’s tourism sector, representing approximately 12 percent of the economy, has experienced significant lumps in recent years, particularly since the downing of a Russian civilian aircraft over the Sinai peninsula in October 2015, which killed all 224 passengers on board.
Russia, along with a host of European nations, suspended flights to Egyptian resorts after the incident.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
