LONDON: The Foreign Office of United Kingdom (UK) on Thursday said it was working to resume flights between the UK and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, after they were suspended amid security fears.
All flights had been grounded after intelligence suggested a bomb may have caused a Russian jet to crash killing all 224 people on board.
‘The UK is helping with security and it is hoped flights will resume on Friday,’ said the office.
About 20,000 Britons are said to be in the resort, including 1,000 residents.
The decision to suspend flights came as the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, arrived in the UK for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said there were 19 flights scheduled for Britain on Thursday, but none would now depart.
‘The airlines are telling us that they expect by tomorrow they’ll be in a position to start flying those British visitors back to the UK,’ he added.
‘We’re spending today with the airlines, with the Egyptian authorities, putting in place short-term emergency measures that will allow us to screen everything going on to those planes, double-check those planes, so that we can be confident that they can fly back safely to the UK.’
In other latest developments: The Kremlin says theories about cause of Russian airliner crash in Sinai are speculation at this stage. The UK government’s emergency committee Cobra is to meet, chaired by the prime minister. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is expected to make a Commons statement on the latest security picture. Extra UK consular staff have been drafted in to Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
A Ministry of Defence source says a small team of UK military personnel are in the resort to advise Foreign Office officials and Department of Transport officials on logistics and security.
Egyptian officials said the cockpit voice recorder of the Metrojet plane was badly damaged in the crash but they managed to extract information from the flight data recorder.
Hammond said short-term security measures included additional levels of baggage screening and searching, but the UK would be working with the Egyptian authorities to look at a more sustainable plan.
He also predicted more countries would suspend flights.
