Turkey and Egypt will not be reopened for Russian tourists this year, according to deputy head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism Roman Skory. "Turkey will not be reopened this year for sure, and the latest events in Egypt showed that Egypt will most likely not be reopened either," Skory said Thursday.

The recent hijack of an EgyptAir passenger plane may have an extremely negative impact on Egypt’s tourism sector and throw it back to zero, Elhamy El-Zayat, the head of Egypt's Federation of Tourism, said on Wednesday. "The incident is a unique message to foreign countries that security at Egyptian airports is far from required standards.

The Kremlin advises one and all to refrain from any conclusions regarding the resumption of Russia’s air links with Egypt before all circumstances of Tuesday’s plane highjack have been cleared up, As Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, making any conclusions about the possibility of restoring air traffic between Russia and Egypt would be premature until all circumstances of the incident involving an A320 liner of Egypt Air have been investigated.

Russia and Egypt have agreed to address the issue of resuming air links within the tightest deadlines possible on the condition security measures are observed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after a meeting with his visiting Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry on Wednesday.

Russian tourists could return to Egypt in the summer of this year, the general director of Intourist Victor Topolkaraev said at a press conference on Wednesday. "We believe that Egypt will be opened by the summer and will be the largest summer destination. Up to 200 thousand people can go there in the first month. Then Greece will be the second popular destination, followed by Bulgaria and Cyprus,…" Topolkaraev added.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will visit Russia on March 16, a diplomatic source told TASS on Thursday on the sidelines of the Valdai discussion cub. "The date has been set for talks with the Russian side - March 16," the source said. Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Mohamed al-Badri previously said that Shoukry’s visit to Russia is "planned soon."

"Russian-Egyptian relations are developing rather fast in all spheres except tourism," Al-Badri told a roundtable on Russian-Egyptian cooperation in different spheres. "You know the reason. We are working on this issue and trying to find a solution that will suit both sides. I hope that air travel (to Russia) will resume soon," he added. 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 development of tourism between Russia and Egypt and the resumption of flights between the two countries were among the issues discussed during the talks of Russian State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin with Egyptian parliamentarians, speaker of Egypt’s House of Representatives (parliament) Ali Abdel Aal told reporters on Tuesday.

Russia and Egypt are interested in restoring tourism relations and resuming flights, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin told reporters on Monday. "We are, of course, interested in fully restoring economic relations, including tourism and flights between our countries," Naryshkin, who will lead the parliamentary delegation during the visit to Cairo on January 26-27, said.

Egypt's ambassador to Russia Mohammed Al-Badri has expressed hope that flights to Russian aircraft to Egypt will be resumed. He was speaking at a news conference on Tuesday. The diplomat reiterated his deep condolences "on behalf of the Egyptians, Egypt’s leadership, the government to the Russian society, above all, relatives of the victims of the Russian plane crash."

Almost 90,000 Russians have left Egypt since flights to Egypt were suspended, the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry told TASS. The Federal Tourism Agency earlier said the program of getting Russian tourists vacationing on Egyptian resorts out of the country had been completed, adding there was a small number of Russians in Egypt, including guides.

Russian top airline Aeroflot suspends flights to and from Egypt from December 1, 2015 to March 27, 2016, the company’s press service reported on Friday. "Given the ban by Rosaviatsia (Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency — TASS) on passenger flights to Egypt since November 6, 2015 Aeroflot has been flying passengers solely in one direction — from Egypt to Russia. The plan is to gradually reduce and temporarily suspend flights between Moscow and Egyptian airports till the end of winter schedule (March 27, 2016)," the report said.

After banning flights to Egypt, Russia may impose similar restrictions on other countries, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. "I cannot rule out that in certain conditions, we will have to consider these issues regarding other destinations and other countries but I hope this will not happen," he said. "As we see no obvious problem, flights should not be banned," Medvedev said, adding that Russia could not prohibit its nationals from visiting any country. On November 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered flights to Egypt suspended amid security concerns following the October 31 Russian airliner crash and the deaths of 224 passengers and crew on the Sinai peninsula. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the flight ban would remain in force until Egypt took measures to ensure travellers' safety.

Russian tour operators have already lost $10 million since Egypt flights were suspended on Friday, November 6, the Association of Russian Tour Operators vice president Dmitry Gorin told Russian News Service radio station on Monday. "Tour operators are in a very difficult situation now. Apart from paying for flights from Egypt, we do not send new tourists [to Egypt] and additionally pay for new flights to Turkey, Cyprus and other countries.

Audit of security at Egypt’s airports will take Russian experts at least two weeks, and after that flights to Egypt may be resumed, deputy head of Russia’s Association of Tourist Operators Dmitry Gorin said on air of the Russian News Service radio on Monday. "At least two weeks are necessary to reconfirm security at the airports," he said.

Egyptian travel market will lose up to 70% of tourist traffic due to the decision of Russia and Great Britain to stop flying into the country, according to the newspaper "Al-Ahram" referring to the statement by a member of the advisory board to the Minister of Tourism of Egypt Mohamed Youssef. Mohammed Yousef called a severe blow to the tourism industry of Egypt, Russia's decision to stop flying into the country. According to him, Russia ranks first in the number of tourists visiting Egypt. Last year, it reached 3 million people, the number of tourists from the UK amounted to 1 million. In total, with the departures of the two countries, Egypt has lost more than 70% of tourist traffic. Mohammed Yousef stated the need for the country to go to the new tourist markets.

Russian tour operators sold till March 2016 about 140 thousand tours to Egypt, the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina reported. "We interviewed the main operations on the destination to find out the number of sold tours, and then determined the overall figure taking into account the market share of each tour operator to Egypt. As the result the total number is about 140 thousand tour packages, the depth of sales reached March 2016," she said. According to Irina Tyurina, Egyptian authorities had previously put the figure of 250 thousand sold tour packages, but according to estimations of tour operators, it is overpriced.

The Ministry of Tourism in Egypt has stopped the country's campaign in Russia and five other countries - the main suppliers of tourists until the completion of the investigation of the collapse of the A321 airliner, on Monday Dailynewsegypt.com said. Minister of Tourism launched a campaign last week at the largest international tourism exhibition WTM in London.

Over the past 24 hours, about 11,000 Russian tourists were evacuated from Egypt, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Sunday. "Today, the number will be even higher," he said. "Today will be the hottest day in this aspect." "Clearly, on weekdays there are fewer flights, and the next weekend will be hot again," he said. "Yesterday, we managed it, at first delays there were delays as we were settling the issue of luggage.

The second Russian Emergencies Ministry plane carrying luggage of Russian tourists has arrived in Moscow from Egypt, the ministry’s press service told TASS. "The ministry’s Ilyushin Il-76 from Hurghada has landed at the Vnukovo airport," the press service said. "It carries about 30 tonnes of luggage - more than 1,500 bags and cases belonging to Russian tourists, who had left Hurghada earlier by twelve flights."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on temporary ban of passenger flights from Russia to Egypt. The text of the decree was posted on the portal of legal information on Sunday. "Russian air companies are temporarily banned from making flights [including commercial] from Russia to Egypt, with the exception of flights [including commercial] to transport Russian citizens commissioned by the state authorities and federal agencies to Egypt for work-related purposes," the document says.

The Russian side so far has no evidence confirming that the crash of the Russian plane in Egypt was caused by an explosion onboard, a source in the Russian mission at the special commission of the Egyptian aviation authorities probing into the crash said on Friday. "Russian specialists will request the French investigators and the Egyptian commission to provide confirmation of the onboard explosion identification," the source said. "As of now, we can speak only about certain noises recorded by the cockpit voice recorder." "It is too early to say that the nature of these noises is identified, moreover, to say that they indicate an explosion," the source said. "We have no such data. We will ask the French and the Egyptians to provide concrete proof of their theories," he said.

The National Anti-Terrorist Committee deems it necessary to stop all Russian flights to Egypt until the causes of the A321 plane crash are established. Russian experts are taking wipe-samples from the plane fragments and passengers’ luggage to trace possible explosives. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu; Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Vladimir Gerasimov; Mikhail Fradkov, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, and Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev took part in an extraordinary meeting on Friday.

Egypt’s authorities will not comment on statements on the causes of Saturday’s crash of Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula until the investigation is complete, cabinet spokesman Hossam el-Qawish has said. The international commission consisting of the representatives of Russia, Egypt and Ireland, where the jet was registered, and also Airbus specialists from France and Germany have already inspected the crash site, he said.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the interview with The Telegraph has dismissed the claims that terrorism is to blame for the Russian passenger plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula over the weekend. The Egyptian leader condemned reports that the jet had been downed by a missile or a bomb as "unfounded speculation." He also said that making further comment on the incident was "premature and not based on any proper facts." Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 plane, en route from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed on October 31 some 30 minutes after its takeoff. The debris was found 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the administrative centre of North Sinai Governorate, the city of Al-Arish. All 217 passengers and seven crewmembers were killed. Most passengers were Russian nationals. Among the people onboard were also four Ukrainian citizens and one Belarusian national.