"Their withdrawal from the market is a severe blow to the industry. The losses will amount to 70 percent of the tourist traffic," Yousef said, as quoted by the Al-Ahram newspaper.
The Russian Airbus A321 crashed en route from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg on October 31. All 224 people on board were killed in what has become the biggest tragedy in Russian and Soviet civil aviation history.
On Wednesday, the UK government said there were concerns the Russian passenger plane might have been downed by a terrorist bomb and suspended all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh airport. The UK Foreign Office also advised its citizens to refrain from all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm el Sheikh.
The suspension of commercial flights between Russia and Egypt became effective at 08.00 pm Moscow time (17:00 GMT) on Friday, according to Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov.
