Russian tourists stuck in Egypt fly to Moscow

The day before, the EU “closed the sky” for the Turkish Southwind Airlines for the airline’s “connections” with RUSSIA. ATOR wrote that because of this, Russian tourists were stuck in Egypt. They managed to take off at 8 am, they are already approaching Moscow Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport

Russian tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh, whose flight could not take off the day before due to European sanctions against the Turkish airline Southwind Airlines, were able to fly out of the country at 8:00 Moscow time, the press service of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) told RBC.

“All tourists took off at 8 am,” ATOR told RBC.

Now the flight is approaching Moscow, the delay was 11 hours 14 minutes. Tourists were waiting for departure in hotels, the association clarified.

The day before it became known that the EU “closed the sky” to the Turkish Southwind. As the Turkish industry publication Turizm Guncel reported, Brussels introduced such a measure within the framework of regulation 833/2014, which is related to sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

After this, ATOR reported that Russian tourists on Air Cairo flight SM903 were unable to fly from Egypt on time. According to the association's source, EU authorities could also recognize this airline as affiliated with Southwind. “We sat on the plane for about an hour and a half, then the captain of the ship said over the speakerphone: “Our flight is canceled completely, because Eurocontrol banned us from flying, maybe for a day or two. Don’t be upset,” one of the passengers on the flight told Moscow 24.

RBC sent inquiries to Southwind, Air Cairo, the Russian Embassy in Egypt, the Egyptian Embassy in Russia, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and asked Coral Travel, PEGAS Touristik, PCT for comment.

Read PIONERPRODUKT .by Bootstrapping: how and why experienced businessmen become startupers “They degrade and leave”: how companies ruin full-time IT specialists Who are cybersquatters and how they blackmail businesses Why companies began to value candidates without a diploma

Southwind Airlines is based in Antalya. The airline launched flights to transport Russians in July 2022. A company representative said that there are no Russians in the management of Southwind, and all aircraft are registered in Turkey.

EU skies have been closed to Russian aircraft and airlines since February 2022. The usa , CANADA , Great Britain , and Australia also took the same step . Russia considers the sanctions illegal. In response to these measures, Moscow closed its airspace to air carriers from 36 countries.