The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) have joined forces and called on the UK government to lift the current ban on UK-based airlines flying to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. The move follows the successful reintroduction of regular flights to the Red Sea resort from other countries, including Germany and Russia.

In a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, David Scowsill, president and chief executive officer, WTTC, and Taleb Rifai, secretary general, UNWTO, stressed the importance of resuming operations to the Egyptian coastal resort as the current travel advisory is having what they describe as “devastating effects on the country’s economy and social stability”. The ban has been in place since a Metrojet airline flying from Sharm el Sheikh to St Petersburg crashed in the Sinai Desert in October 2015.

They said: “Travel and tourism is vital to Egypt’s economy and social peace, contributing eleven per cent of the country’s GDP and 2.6 million in jobs in 2015. The reduction of visitors has created huge employment losses. The country’s biggest concern is how the lack of employment opportunities, especially for young men and women, has instilled a desperate disposition and thus vulnerability to radicalisation or to fleeing on a refugee boat.”

Egyptian authorities have taken significant measures to step up the level of security not only in the airport but in the surrounding area as well. These improvements now meet the safety standards as indicated by the UK Department for Transport.

They concluded: “It is devastating to see the impact the current UK travel advisory has on Egypt and on the young workforce in particular. We call on the UK government to review the advisory and allow commercial aircraft to fly to Sharm el Sheikh and thereby help restore the country’s Travel & Tourism sector’s GDP and employment provision.”

Analysis of schedule data shows that over the past ten years there have been up to 785,000 annual scheduled one-way seats on offer between the UK and Sharm el Sheikh. The largest inventory during this period was in 2013 when non-stop scheduled flights were offered to the Egyptian city from 16 different airports in the UK.

Official data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) shows that more than one million passengers per year had been flying between the UK and Sharm el Sheikh every year before the flight ban.