LONDON: British Airways has extended its suspension of flights to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh indefinitely, becoming the first major UK airline to cancel departures for the crucial winter season in Egypt.
British and Russian governments banned their airlines from flying to Sharm El-Sheikh, a popular winter sun destination, because of concerns about security at the local airport after the suspected bombing of a Russian passenger jet in October 2015 killed all 224 people on board.
Tourism is a key source of income for the Egyptian economy but the number of tourists fell 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016, partly hurt by the flight ban keeping British and Russian tourists away.
“The safety and security of our customers will always be our top priorities and we have suspended our flights from Gatwick to Sharm El-Sheikh indefinitely,” British Airways said in a statement on Tuesday.
Customers with bookings on any canceled services for the winter season will be offered a full refund or can put the money toward a new flight to an alternative destination, it added.
Other British airlines, such as Monarch and easyJet, have previously said they hoped to restart flights to Sharm El-Sheikh for the winter season beginning in October, although that is dependent on advice from the UK government, which has so far not changed.
Egyptian Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed last month called on the British and Russian governments to rethink their position on the flight ban.
Egypt’s efforts to revive its tourism industry suffered a fresh blow in May when an EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Bad news for Egypt: BA cancels Sharm El-Sheikh winter flights
Bad news for Egypt: BA cancels Sharm El-Sheikh winter flights
Turkiye’s Kurdish party says Syria deal leaves Ankara ‘no excuses’ on peace process
- Turkish officials said earlier on Monday that the Syrian integration deal, if implemented, could advance the more than year-long process with the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq
ANKARA: Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party said on Monday that the Turkish government had no more “excuses” to delay a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) now that a landmark integration deal was achieved in neighboring Syria.
On Sunday in Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to come under the control of authorities in Damascus — a move that Ankara had long sought as integral to its own peace effort with the PKK. “For more than a year, the government has presented the SDF’s integration with Damascus as the biggest obstacle to the process,” Tuncer Bakirhan, co-leader of the DEM Party, told Reuters, in some of the party’s first public comments on the deal in Syria.
“The government will no longer have any excuses left. Now it is the government’s turn to take concrete steps.” Bakirhan cautioned President Tayyip Erdogan’s government against concluding that the rolling back Kurdish territorial gains in Syria negated the need for a peace process in Turkiye. “If the government calculates that ‘we have weakened the Kurds in Syria, so there is no longer a need for a process in Turkiye,’ it would be making a historic mistake,” he said in the interview.
Turkish officials said earlier on Monday that the Syrian integration deal, if implemented, could advance the more than year-long process with the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq. Erdogan urged swift integration of Kurdish fighters into Syria’s armed forces. Turkiye, the strongest foreign backer of Damascus, has since 2016 repeatedly sent forces into northern Syria to curb the gains of the SDF — which after the 2011–2024 civil war had controlled more than a quarter of Syria while fighting Islamic State with strong US backing.
The United States has built close ties with Damascus over the last year and was closely involved in mediation between it and the SDF toward the deal.
Bakirhan said progress required recognition of Kurdish rights on both sides of the border.
“What needs to be done is clear: Kurdish rights must be recognized in both Turkiye and Syria, democratic regimes must be established, and freedoms must be guaranteed,” he said.
