UK amb. welcomes 1st London-Sharm El Sheikh flight after long ban

CAIRO – 20 December 2019: British Ambassador to Egypt Geoffrey Adams has celebrated the arrival of the first direct flight from Britain to South Sinai’s Sharm el-Sheikh after a ban that had been imposed since 2015 over a plane crash was lifted.

“The British Embassy team was at Sharm el Sheikh airport this evening to welcome a direct flight from the UK,” Adams wrote on his Twitter account.

A total of 110 British tourists arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh Thursday aboard the first direct flight from London in four years.



The visitors were welcomed by a team from the British embassy and public relations staff from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, who gave the holidaymakers flowers and gifts in celebration of their arrival.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Thursday praised the recent positive developments in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Britain, in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, including a decision by the British government to resume flights from Britain to Sharm El-Sheikh.

In October, Adams said in "Al Hekaya" talk show that after the ban lift on flights from the UK to Sharm El Sheikh Airport both Egypt and the UK “can promote Sharm El Sheikh as a happy holiday destination.”

Adams said he thinks that the economic benefits will be huge and that he is very conscious that people running hotels and people working in hotels in Sharm El Sheikh will benefit hugely from British tourists increasing in number.

The ambassador said that the ban lift is the outcome of “the intense cooperation between the Egyptian and British authorities over many months,” which led to “the confidence to make that decision” on the UK's side.

Adams stated that nearly half a million British tourists will visit Egypt this year. “The vast majority of them will enjoy a happy trouble-free holidays. And, many British people live here as well happily as I do myself,” the ambassador added.