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Tui launching holidays to Sharm el Sheikh from next February after flight ban lifted

TUI says it will start selling holidays to Sharm el Sheikh next week, with travel dates from February next year.

It comes after flight ban to the Egyptian resort was finally lifted last week.

 Sharm el Sheikh flight ban is finally lifted
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Sharm el Sheikh flight ban is finally liftedCredit: Getty - Contributor

The UK's biggest travel company said it will re-start air services "in response to customer demand".

Flights between the UK and the Egyptian resort were halted in November 2015 following the bombing of a Russian airliner soon after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, which killed all 224 people on board.

The Department for Transport (DfT) lifted restrictions last week due to "improvements in security procedures" and "close co-operation between our aviation security experts and their Egyptian counterparts".

Tui is believed to be the first major travel company to announce when it will resume flights, although smaller firms are offering chartered flights from next month.


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Mark Hall, director of product and destination experience at Tui UK and Ireland, said: "At Tui we're committed to offering our customers an outstanding choice of holidays across the globe.

"Sharm el-Sheikh was always a hugely popular destination and I am delighted to confirm that we are reintroducing the Egypt favourite to our winter 2019 and summer 2020 programmes.

"In response to customer demand, our first flights will operate in February 2020 and our resorts are all looking forward to welcoming our customers back with a smile."

Tui will begin .

Hundreds of thousands of UK tourists went to the Red Sea destination each year before the ban on flights was introduced.

The measure has seen the number of UK visitors dwindle as it forced them to either take multiple flights or a ferry from Hurghada.

It was one of the factors which led to the collapse of airline Monarch in October 2017.

Tui is seeing a huge expansion this year following Thomas Cook collapse.

Last month, the holiday provider announced 2 million seats for summer 2020, many of which were to destinations served by Thomas Cook.

Thomas Cook could also make a come back as an online-only travel agent.

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