EgyptAir to resume some flights to China next week after suspension over coronavirus outbreak

Ahram Online , Thursday 20 Feb 2020

EgyptAir said it will operate one weekly round trip "due to demand on travel in both directions"

EgyptAir
File Photo: An EgyptAir plane (Photo: Reuters)

Egypt will resume some flights to and from China starting next Thursday, flagship airliner EgyptAir said, three weeks after it announced it was suspending flights to China over the coronavirus outbreak.

The national airliner will operate only one trip a week "due to demand on travel in both directions," it said in a statement on Thursday.

The flight will run from Cairo to Beijing and Guangzhou, and back from Guangzhou and Beijing to Cairo.

The company will continue to assess the situation to "take the necessary decisions as to increasing trips to the Chinese cities based on demand," it added.

EgyptAir announced on 30 January it was suspending all flights to and from China, with the last Chinese tourist group in Egypt leaving on 4 February.

The Egyptian airliner joined a number of airlines from around the world that grounded flights in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 2,000 people, including eight outside China, and infected more than 75,000 globally.

On Wednesday, Egypt's health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a joint statement that the foreigner who was announced to be carrying the virus tested negative two days after he was quarantined in a hospital.

Earlier this week, Egypt ended a 14-day quarantine for 302 Egyptian citizens who had returned home from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus, after they tested negative for the virus.

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