UK Parliament urges lifting flight ban off Sharm El Sheikh

CAIRO – 4 October 2017: The All Party Parliamentary Group on Egypt just issued an official statement urging United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Teresa May to lift the ongoing ban on UK flights into Sharm El-Sheikh airport, after Monarch Airlines “had entered administration.”

The ban on UK flights was implemented after a Russian passenger plane was downed in October 2015, and even though Russia itself has expressed its content with the safety measures in Egyptian airports and declared its intentions to

resume flights to Egypt by winter

, the UK still upholds its ban on flights to the resort city Sharm El-Sheikh.

The group stated, “We, as a cross-Party group, have been calling for an end to the Sharm El-Sheikh travel ban since September 2016, following our visit and tour of the airport in July. The Egyptian government and hotel groups have spent over £20 million to ensure that Sharm El-Sheikh is now one of the safest airports in the Middle East and meets the demands laid out by the British government in 2015. A Department for Transport representative said in 2016 that the ‘conditions had been met to enable flights to resume.’ As these conditions have been met, there are no longer justifiable reasons for the ongoing ban. The Monarch’s collapse shows that the ban is not only having a devastating effect on the Egyptian economy, but also damaging the British economy.”

The statement came in a very sympathetic tone expressing their sadness over the fate of Monarch Airlines, and fearing the dangerous diplomatic consequences of the ban on the UK-Egyptian relations.

As the group added, “Monarch has traditionally been one of Egypt’s largest travel providers. Their CEO Andrew Swaffield has been quoted describing the travel ban as one of the ‘root causes’ of Monarch’s collapse. As Monarch's post-mortem begins, the ongoing ban on UK flights into Sharm El-Sheikh airport will rightly come under the spotlight. If we do not want to hear of further similar stories, it is vital that the flight ban be lifted as soon as possible.”