Irish citizens in Sharm el Sheikh advised to be cautious, and not leave resort; flights cancelled

The Department of Foreign Affairs is advising Irish citizens in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to exercise a high degree of caution and to avoid travelling outside the resort.

Irish citizens in Sharm el Sheikh advised to be cautious, and not leave resort; flights cancelled

The Department of Foreign Affairs is advising Irish citizens in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to exercise a high degree of caution and to avoid travelling outside the resort.

The department is also advising against all non-essential travel to Egypt.

It updated its travel information for Egypt, after the Irish Aviation Authority directed all Irish airlines to avoid Sharm el Sheikh Airport and the airspace around the Sinai peninsula until further notice.

Two hundred and twenty-four people died when a plane crashed in the Sinai desert on Saturday morning.

The cause of the crash is still not known. However the British government suspects it could have been caused by an explosive device, and suspended all flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the UK.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs is also advising people who are planning to travel to Egypt to check with their tour operator or airline, as similar directions from other aviation authorities could affect scheduled flights.

CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association Pat Dawson, said that as it happened, there was not a high demand for flights from Ireland to Egypt at this time of year.

"There was a charter going throughout the summer, but that finished some weeks ago, so anyone wanting to go now would have to go via somehere else (anyway)," he said.

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Egypt flights suspended as UK says bomb may have caused Russian crash

Meanwhile, the head of Sharm el-Sheikh airport has been replaced amid the growing international concern that the Russian plane which crashed soon after leaving the Red Sea resort the airport was downed by a bomb.

But Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt’s civilian airports, said Abdel-Wahab Ali had been “promoted” to become his assistant and the move late last night had nothing to do with media scepticism surrounding the airport’s security.

Mr Mahgoub said Mr Ali was being replaced by Emad el-Balasi, a pilot.

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