RUSSIA: Aeroflot Resumes Moscow To Cairo Flights, After October 2015 Bombing Over Sinai Peninsula Killing 224 On Board

Aeroflot resumed regular flights from Moscow to Cairo on April 11.

Aeroflot’s Airbus A320 aircraft will serve the route thrice per week, departing and arriving from Sheremetyevo International Airport’s (SVO) Terminal F.

Even though air service between Russia and Egypt has been interrupted for such a long time, the load factor on upcoming flights is more than 85%, Aeroflot says.

Aeroflot says that it has booked nearly 3,750 seats from SVO–CAI and over 3,700 CAI–SVO from now until the end of the Summer.

Flight SU 400 – Departs from SVO at 20:50 to arrive in CAI at 00:25. Frequency: it will be operated weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays.

Flight SU 401 – Departs from SVO at 01:25 to arrive in CAI at 06:50. Frequency: it will be operated weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

From June 12 until July 2, Aeroflot will fly daily between both cities due to the increased demand for air transportation while Summer comes to an end.

In October 2015, the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed 224 people onboard. As a result, Moscow suspended all operations to Egypt.

Russia stopped flights to Cairo lasting more than two years.

This has adversely affected Egyptian tourism, which is heavily dependent on Russian travelers.

In December 2017, Russian and Egyptian officials signed a security cooperation protocol in order to restart services.

Since the attack, claimed by the extremist Islamic State group, the northeast African country guarantees it has acquired monitoring cameras, modern baggage-scanning equipment, finger-print security gates, among other features.

Aeroflot serves 1,074 destinations along with its partners in 177 countries across the world and it manages one of the youngest fleets in the world with 232 aircraft, consisting of 76 Airbus A320-200, 38 A321-200, five A330-200, 17 A330-300, 38 Boeing 737-800, 16 Boeing 777-300ER, and 42 Sukhoi Superjet 100-95.

Aeroflot is expecting another 100 aircraft, including six Airbus A320-200, four A321-200, 14 A350-900, 12 Boeing 737-800, six 777-300ER, eight Sukhoi Superjet 100-95 and 50 brand new Irkut MC-21-300.

Last year, the Russian airline handled a total of 32.8 million passengers. 50.1 million passengers as Aeroflot Group including its subsidiaries.


Tourism Observer