Sharm el Sheikh flights suspended amid Metrojet bomb claims

International carriers have either reduced or suspended their respective commercial services to Sharm el Sheikh following a British government announcement on Thursday that a bomb may have played a role in the downing of MetroJet (Russia) flight 7K9268 on Saturday, October 31. The crash claimed the lives of all 217 passengers and 7 crew on-board.

Thus far, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has directed all Irish operators to avoid either serving the Sinai Peninsula or transiting its airspace until further notice. Russia has also ordered all Russian carriers to suspend all flights to and from Egypt pending the outcome of an investigation into 7K9268.

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) has also announced that its Eurowings (EW, Dusseldorf) unit has suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh for the time being as a precautionary measure given the situation in Sinai (Edelweiss Air (WK,Zurich) continues to serve Sharm el Sheikh). Air Berlin (AB,Berlin Tegel) subsidiary Niki (HG, Vienna) says it is considering whether or not to proceed with full charter flights to Sharm el-Sheikh scheduled for November 7.

Though it had earlier in the week banned local carriers from serving Sharm el Sheikh, the UK government has since agreed to allow UK airlines to fly aircraft into the Egyptian Red Sea resort from Friday, November 6 in order to repatriate some 20,000 stranded Britons. easyJet (U2, London Luton) has announced it will operate six additional flights, while Monarch Airlines (ZB, London Luton) will operate three flights in addition to two scheduled services.