Egypt may purchase Russian planes only after tourist flow to country rises

Egypt plans to purchase Russian planes only after the tourist flow to the country recovers, the Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil told TASS at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2016) on Friday. "In my understanding the answer is yes," he said when asked whether Egypt plans to buy more Russian planes. He added though that "it is also related to tourism: there is no point for us to buy planes for internal flights when tourism is down, so it's kind of linked to how the tourism will come back." "There is no point to increase our internal flight fleet when tourism is down. When we start to see tourism is coming up, than again it will make sense," he said. As was reported earlier Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry is in talks with EgyptAir on supplying up to 40 SSJ-100 jets. Russia suspended air service with Egypt after a Russian passenger plane crashed over Sinai last October. The A321 plane belonging to Russia’s air company Kogalymavia was en route from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg in Russia (flight KGL 9268) when it crashed over the Sinai Peninsula early on October 31 last year. The plane fell near El Hasna populated locality 100km to the south of Al-Arish, the administrative center of the North Sinai Governorate (province). All the 224 people onboard, including 217 passengers and the seven-member crew, died. The passengers, most of whom were Russians, also included four Ukrainians and one citizen of Belarus.