UK Govt Confirms Flights to Repatriate Tourists From Sharm El-Sheikh

UK airlines will resume on Friday flights from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to the United Kingdom to return British citizens home, a 10 Downing Street spokesperson confirmed in a statement.

LONDON (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the Office of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that all flights from Sharm El-Sheikh International Airport to the United Kingdom were suspended because of the suspicion that the crashed Russian A321 airliner "may well have been" brought down by a bomb.

"Following further discussions with the airlines and the Egyptians we have agreed on a package of additional security measures that is being put in place rapidly. Consequently the government has decided, in consultation with the airlines, that flights from Sharm to the UK will resume tomorrow," the statement published on Thursday read.

EasyJet, British Airways, Monarch Airlines and Thomson Airways announced earlier they would operate flights to bring home up to 20,000 UK residents stranded in the Red Sea resort.

However, UK authorities have not yet decided when they would resume flights from the United Kingdom to Sharm el-Sheikh, British Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said.

The Airbus A321 crashed en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board. The catastrophe is the largest in civil aviation in Russian and Soviet history.