Putin orders halt to Egypt flights: Kremlin

Sharm Al Shaikh, Dubai, London: The latest on the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt that killed all 224 people onboard last Saturday. (All timings Dubai)

6.30pm - Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a halt to flights to Egypt on Friday and assistance in bringing Russian tourists there home as investigators probe the reasons for a Russian passenger jet crashing in the Sinai Peninsula.

Putin "ordered the government to work out mechanisms" to halt flights and to repatriate Russian citizens following a recommendation from the head of the FSB security agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

2:40 pm - The Dutch foreign minister says his government's decision to issue a negative travel advisory this week for Sharm el-Sheikh airport was linked to lax security.

Minister Bert Koenders told reporters Friday in The Hague: "We have the impression that there are insufficient security measures there." He stressed the advisory did not cover the whole of Egypt.

Dutch travel companies are preparing to repatriate tourists vacationing at the Egyptian Red Sea resort. Laura Water, a spokeswoman for travel company TUI, says it has cancelled flights on Sunday and Tuesday from Amsterdam to Sharm el-Sheikh and will fly empty planes to the resort to pick up just under 200 of its customers. Returning passengers will only be allowed to take hand luggage on board.

2.31pm - Egypt says 29 flights are planned from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Britain Friday for tourists stranded by security concerns over the apparent downing of a Russian airliner, an Egyptian official said.

Large crowds gathered at the airport anxiously awaiting word of when they could fly home after Britain announced it would lift the suspension of flights out of Sharm that it imposed on Wednesday.

"Sixty-four flights are planned out of Sharm el-Sheikh today, including 29 organised by British companies to take home British tourists whose holidays have ended," civil aviation ministry spokesman Hossam Kamal said in a statement.

2.25pm -- Egypt is not allowing British airlines to fly additional non-scheduled repatriation flights to bring back holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al-Shaikh, the airline easyJet said Friday.

"The Egyptian authorities have currently suspended UK airlines from flying into Sharm Al-Shaikh. This means that eight of easyJet's 10 planned flights today will no longer be able to operate," it said in a statement. "We are working with the UK government at the highest level on a solution. In the meantime we are also working on a contingency plan so we can operate as soon as we receive permission to fly," it said.

EasyJet as well as charter companies Monarch and Thomson were all planning to fly empty planes to Sharm Al-Shaikh on Friday to bring back some of the 20,000 British tourists currently in the resort.

1.22pm -- Saudi Arabia Airlines (Saudia), Air Arabia Jordan and Turkish Airlines are continuing to operate flights to Sharm Al Shaikh in the south of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, the airlines have told Gulf News.

The decision to continue flying to the Egyptian holiday destination follows comments from the British and US government that the Russian passenger jet that crashed over the Sinai on Saturday was possibly brought down by a bomb on board.

Saudia flights to Sharm Al Shaikh “will remain as scheduled,” a spokesperson told Gulf News by email late on Thursday.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia Group told Gulf News on Friday “there is no change to the flight schedule” on flights to Sharm Al Shaikh operated by Air Arabia Jordan.

Air Arabia Jordan, a joint venture between Air Arabia and Petra Airlines, started hub operations from Queen Alia International Airport in Amman on May 19 this year. Flights to Sharm Al Shaikh started on May 21.

A spokesperson for Turkish Airlines told Gulf News on Thursday it is “still flying to Sharm El Shaikh, but we are using the safest route."

On Wednesday, the British, Irish and Dutch governments suspended all flights in and out of the Egyptian holiday destination after the crash of the Russian passenger airline that killed all 224 on board on Saturday October 31.

- Alexander Cornwell, Staff Reporter, Gulf News

12:55pm -- Turkish Airlines has dispatched a security team to Sharm Al-Shaikh airport in Egypt to assess security procedures, a spokesperson for the company said, after a Russian airliner which took off from there crashed on Saturday.
The spokesperson said based on the team's report the company would decide whether to operate flights to Sharm Al-Shaikh on Friday after cancelling a flight from Istanbul to Sharm Al-Shaikh and the return flight on Thursday evening.

11:10 am -- Egypt police are carrying out detailed security checks around the airport at Sharm Al-Shaikh - the resort from where the doomed Russian plane took off last weekend - after UK officials confirmed that flights will start bringing stranded British tourists home from the Sinai Peninsula.

Dozens of busses are waiting outside the airport on Friday morning, with the line stretching up to a kilometer (half mile) as police inspect each vehicle.

Most of those onboard are Russian and British tourists.

Britain has said that additional security measures will be in place, including only allowing passengers to carry hand baggage, while checked luggage will be transported separately.

The Metrojet plane crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg last Saturday, with mostly Russians aboard.

Russia and Egypt on Thursday dismissed Western suggestions that a terrorist bomb may have caused the crash that killed 224 people, saying the speculation was a rush to judgment.