Zarina Doguzova, head of the Federal Tourism Agency, said on Friday after a meeting with Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Nazih al-Najari that Russian tour operators owed about eight billion rubles to tourists who canceled their trips to Egypt.
“The debts of Russian tour operators for already paid trips to Egypt amount to almost eight billion rubles … Therefore, we discussed the procedures for launching the season. First of all, we are talking about air travel so that our tour operators and travel agents can fulfill their obligations on paid tours, and tourists go to planned vacation,” she explained.
“We discussed the possibility of introducing the Mir card in the resorts of Egypt, especially since he is interested in the Russian tourist flow and the development of relations between our countries in the field of tourism.” The Federal Air Transport Agency recommended that Russian airlines that have aircraft registered in the registers of foreign states under a leasing agreement with a foreign organization suspend the transportation of passengers and cargo from Russia abroad,” Doguzova added.
This happened after several planes of Russian airlines were stopped at foreign airports due to European Union sanctions.
Egypt’s flag carrier EgyptAir also suspended flights to Russia in March due to aircraft insurance issues.