11,000 Russian travellers fly home from Egypt: deputy PM

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11,000 Russian travellers fly home from Egypt: deputy PM
By AFP     35 mins ago in World

Some 11,000 Russian tourists have returned home from Egypt in the past 24 hours after Moscow suspended flights to the country over the Sinai plane crash, an official said Sunday.

"Over the past 24 hours some 11,000 people have been flown out," deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters, adding that more people were set to return home later in the day.

"Today is the busiest day in this sense," he said at the Vnukovo airport outside Moscow.

He added that Russia was sending a number of experts to inspect Egypt's airports to see if security needed to be beefed up there.

While it dismissed international suspicions that the Russian jet that crashed on October 31 over the Sinai peninsula with 224 people on board was bombed, Russia halted all flights to Egypt on Friday.

Officials had said on Saturday that nearly 80,000 Russian tourists were still in Egypt, mainly in Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, and that they would be able to return home at their own pace.

Following in Britain's footsteps, Russia said tourists returning home would fly without their check-in luggage which will be brought back to the country separately.

Earlier Sunday an Il-76 plane of the Russian emergencies ministry departed Hurghada with some 30 tonnes of tourists' baggage.

The ministry added that the first Il-76 plane had already brought another 30 tonnes of luggage to Moscow.

The Kremlin insisted the decision to suspend flights did not mean that Moscow believed the crash was caused by a deliberate attack.

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said on Saturday that its experts were continuing their work at the crash site together with representatives of Egypt, France, Germany and Ireland.

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Russia faces evacuating 80,000 nationals from Egypt after flights suspended
Reuters
20 hours ago
 
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Around 80,000 Russians are stranded in Egypt after the Kremlin grounded all flights to the country following the crash of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Saturday.
 

President Vladimir Putin ordered the flight suspension on Friday, a possible sign that Russia is attaching more credence to the theory that a bomb brought down the Russian passenger jet in Egypt a week ago, killing all 224 people on board.

"Today the number of tourists in Egypt was clarified, it is around 80,000," RIA news agency quoted Dvorkovich as saying.

"The Egyptian military has taken control of the operation to put passengers on flights," he added.

Russia will be wanting to avoid the chaotic scenes endured by thousands of British holidaymakers stuck in Red Sea resorts after Egypt slashed the number of flights it would allow to take them home.

Oleg Safonov, head of Russian state tourism agency Rostourism, said 1,200 Russian tourists had returned home and future flights would be leaving without hold luggage.

"A planned process to evacuate tourists will be executed," Russian news agencies quoted Safonov as saying. "Planes will arrive empty and be boarded by those tourists who should return home on that date."

The Russian Travel Industry Union said nearly all Russian tourists due to visit Egypt in the coming days had agreed to fly to Turkey instead.

"In the near future, flights which should have flown to Egypt are being redirected to Antalya," the Interfax news agency quoted union spokeswoman Irina Turina as saying. "Practically all tourists have agreed with this."

http://news.yahoo.com/79-000-russians-egypt-flights-suspended-tourism-chief-101338019--finance.html