British Airways and Lufthansa suspend flights to Cairo – security precaution

British Airways has suspended all flights to Cairo for seven days from Saturday 20 July for security reasons. The statement from BA says:

“We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world, and have suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority, and we would never operate an aircraft unless it was safe to do so.”

Lufthansa suspends then restarts flights

The German airline Lufthansa also suspended flights but was planning to resume them on Sunday 21 July.

The Guardian is reporting almost contradictory statements by BA, citing security concerns, and statements in various Egyptian papers, implying the decision is more to do with internal BA concerns, like the looming strikes expected to take place at Heathrow Airport as more likely the cause of the suspension.

2PAXfly Takeout

Hard to know the truth here, but Egypt has not been the most stable place in the last few years, including the bombing of a Russian passenger jet in 2015 and a number of other terrorist incidents and civil unrest, so a security risk does seem plausible as a reason. On the other hand, other airlines have not flocked to adopt the suspension, and Lufthansa has even reversed theirs.