Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Egypt has fulfilled 85 per cent of the Russian demands with regard to aviation safety in order to resume flights, said Ali Abdel Aal, Egyptian parliament Speaker, on Wednesday.

According to Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Abdel Aal said this at the meeting with Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament.

Abdel Aal added that Egypt was now expecting from the Russian side to reciprocate. “It would be a great sign, if flights between Moscow and Cairo resumed,” he said.

He also informed that Egypt's prosecutor general is expected to visit Moscow in the end of July to discuss aviation security issues in the Arab country.

Egyptian tourism has suffered after a number of countries, including Russia and the United Kingdom, suspended flights to Egypt following the Airbus A321 crash on October 31, killing 224 people. The Russian air carrier Kogalymavia crashed in the Sinai Peninsula while heading to St. Petersburg from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Russia's probe panel officially classified the plane crash as a terrorist attack.

On Tuesday, Egypt’s state statistics body CAPMAS said The number of tourists who visited Egypt in May dropped by 51.7 per cent compared to the same month during the previous year.

May saw 432,000 tourists, down from around 895,000 tourists in May 2015.

The decrease has largely been due to a 61 per cent in incoming Russian tourists.

*Al Arabiya