It is unclear when flights from Russia will return to Egypt following the passenger flight crash in October last year.

“I am not sure when the flights will return, although we are expecting them soon after we have made tremendous efforts to comfort our Russian friends that flying to Egypt is safe,” says Egypt’s tourism minister Yehia Rashid on the sidelines of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) being held in Dubai on 28 April.

Following the crash the Russian government suspended all flights to Egypt, resulting in a 99 per cent fall in the number of nights Russian visitors spent in Egypt.

Rashid also told MEED that the ministry has worked with security staff across Egypt’s airports to ensure that the improvement of airport security continues in what he calls “a positive direction.”

“Progress is an ongoing process and we keep moving forward. Airport security is continuing to improve and we continue to do everything we can to ensure this remains the case,” says Rahid who went on to dismiss the importance of Control Risk, a UK firm contracted earlier this year to support the Egyptians in improving airport security. “Control Risk is simply an auditing firm; the efforts are being made by the Egyptian authorities themselves.”

The Egyptian government has commissioned UK security firm Control Risks, for a contract worth $700,000, to review and evaluate security processes in Egypt’s key airports in the wake of the Russian plane crash.

Rashid is optimistic that the number of tourists could return to growth in 2017 through a number of initiatives including increasing the presence of national carrier Egyptair abroad and working with low-cost airlines and the improvement of services.

The main aviation operator in the country, the Egyptian Airports Company, has also set in motion a six-year, multimillion-dollar contract with Geneva-based air transport solutions provider Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (Sita). Cairo appointed the Swiss firm to assist with efforts to modernise five of its largest airports in 2015.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Egypt in the first quarter of 2016 fell 40 per cent compared to the previous year.

The steep drop in the number of foreign tourists is attributed to the crash of the Russian Airbus A321 plane, operated by Metrojet, which crashed on 31 October killing all 224 passengers on board after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport. The downing of the plane, thought to be due to a bomb, was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).