EASYJET to launch holidays in Egypt for 1st time in 2020

CAIRO - 4 November 2019: EasyJet Holidays’ strategy and sourcing director Paul Bixby said that EasyJet will launch holidays to Egypt for the first time next year.

According to Sunshine website, the holiday provider will sell packages to Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, following the end of a four-year flight ban to the destination.

Bixby said in a speech during a travel conference, "We will offer a curated selection of hotels that we know are popular in Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh entering the summer in 2020."Paul added that plans would be "kept small" with between 10 and 12 hotels in each location according to Travel Weekly.

In 2018, the country saw an increase in British tourists by 39 percent compared to the previous year.This is thought to further increase next year after the flight ban to Sharm El-Sheikh was lifted earlier this year.

The UK Government banned all flights to the region in 2014 after a Russian aircraft was bombed shortly after take-off, killing everyone on board. TUI also announced that they would be launching holidays to Sharm El-Sheikh, starting on November 7.

Egypt is a popular location for British holidaymakers with cheap deals to the Red Sea.

UK flights to the South Sinai famous resort have been suspended since December 2015, after a Russian passenger plane was downed in a terrorist attack, killing all 224 people on board. Since then, both sides have negotiated the resumption of flights, especially as Egypt heightened security measures and implemented all the procedures demanded by the Russian side.

“The UK has been clear that flights to Sharm El-Sheikh should resume when the security situation allows. I am pleased that today we can announce the lifting of the current restrictions. We will continue to work closely with our partners in Egypt and airlines that plan to resume flights in the future,” British Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Andrew Murrison said earlier.