British Airways and Lufthansa have temporarily suspended flights to Cairo, the two carriers confirmed on Saturday evening, citing security concerns.
The British flag-carrier has cancelled all flights to the Egyptian capital for seven days. It stated that this is a precautionary measure.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office has updated its advice to British citizens travelling to Egypt and warns of “a heightened risk of terrorism against aviation”.
Lufthansa followed a few hours later and confirmed that it has cancelled flights to Cairo as well.
British Airways’ schedule lists one daily flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Cairo International Airport, which is operated by Airbus A321neo aircraft. Egypt’s flag-carrier EgyptAir is serving the same route twice a day, using widebody airplanes.
Lufthansa offers several connections to Cairo. Two daily flights from Frankfurt Airport and a four-times weekly flight from its other hub at Munich Airport. One service from Frankfurt is operated by Airbus A330-300 aircraft, the other ones by the smaller Airbus A321. The German flag-carrier is also an alliance partner of EgyptAir, which offers one daily flight to each of the two Lufthansa hubs.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
