CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt will reopen all its airports on July 1, the civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after suspending regular international flights in March due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Mohamed Manar Anba told a news conference that flights would resume gradually at the airports from the start of July.
He said foreign tourism would be limited to resorts in three coastal provinces, after the government said on Thursday it would reopen Egypt’s main seaside resorts for international flights and foreign tourists from July 1.
Anba and Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anani, who joined the news conference, outlined measures to be taken inside planes, at airports and in hotels to help to ensure the safety and health of foreign tourists.
Travellers from countries with high rates of coronavirus infections, based on World Health Organization (WHO) assessments, need to be tested before coming to Egypt, the ministers said.
The pandemic has shuttered Egypt’s tourist industry, which the government says accounts for 5% of economic output but which analysts say may account for as much as 15% if jobs and investment indirectly related to the industry are included.
Egypt, a nation of about 100 million people, has registered 42,980 cases of the virus and 1,484 deaths. The number is lower than many European countries but cases have climbed in the past three weeks.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad, Ahmed Tolba and Reuters TV; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Edmund Blair)
