UPDATE: UK Government Warns On Some Egypt Travel, Resorts Unaffected
30 Januar 2011 - 3:25PM
Dow Jones News
The U.K. government Saturday advised against all but essential
travel to the Egyptian cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez
and recommended that British citizens leave those cities if it is
safe to do so, but travel companies said popular tourist resorts
are still unaffected and they are continuing to fly holidaymakers
to the country.
Crowds of protesters were massing in central Cairo for a sixth
day of angry revolt against President Hosni Mubarak's regime Sunday
amid increasing lawlessness, a rising death toll and a spate of
jail breaks.
However, Europe's largest travel operators, TUI Travel PLC
(TT.LN) and Thomas Cook Group PLC (TCG.LN), said while they
cancelled excursions to the affected cities from holiday resorts on
the Mediterranean and Red Sea, customers in resorts including Sharm
el Sheikh and Hurghada can continue their holidays as planned.
TUI Travel's Thomson brand was advising holidaymakers in Luxor
to see its local representatives for updated information and to
respect local curfews, and if they are concerned about remaining in
the city, to discuss with holiday advisors or the resort
office.
The Red Sea resorts served by the two travel companies are well
away from the cities affected by the new U.K. government advice and
are served by their own airports.
"Our experienced teams on the ground assure us that no tourist
areas at the Red Sea have been affected in any way by the recent
demonstrations," Thomas Cook said on its website. "They are fully
operational and holiday makers are continuing to enjoy these
popular resorts."
"People should also take considerable reassurance from the fact
that the resort of Sharm el Sheikh operates like a country in
itself. It is run separately from the rest of Egypt, benefits from
having just one secure road into the resort, and enjoys an
exceptionally low crime rate. There is also no unemployment in
Sharm el Sheikh, since those living in the resort are only there
because they are employed in tourism," TUI Travel said.
Media reports in the U.K. said about 30,000 British tourists
were currently in Egypt.
The updated travel advice from the British government comes as
the U.S. government started organizing the evacuation of its
nationals from Egypt to safehaven locations in Europe. The U.S.
embassy in Cairo said U.S. nationals should call or email the State
Department to make arrangements, although they would have to
reimburse the cost of their charter flights.
The British government said it wouldn't be organizing special
charter flights to evacuate U.K. nationals from Egypt and anyone
wanting to leave would have to use commercial flights. However,
U.K. commercial flights to the cities affected by the travel
guidance were suffering disruptions.
Airline easyJet PLC (EZJ.LN), which flies to Luxor, Sharm El
Sheikh and Hurghada, said passengers already booked on flights to
Luxor could change the date of travel for free or take a credit
voucher to use on future easyJet flights. It is operating flights
as normal to the two resort airports.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG's (LHA.XE) British airline bmi cancelled
its flights Sunday between London Heathrow and Cairo having had a
flight turned back mid-air Saturday. British Airways PLC (BAY.LN)
said it changed the timetable of its flights to Cairo to take
account of a curfew in the city and passengers should check the
status of their flights before leaving for the airport. BA's
flights to Sharm El Sheikh are unaffected, the airline said.
The outbreak of violence and demonstrations in Egypt is a blow
to travel operators, which earlier this month were forced to cancel
all flights to and from Tunisia and evacuate all British
holidaymakers in the country after the U.K. government advised
against all but essential travel due to violent street protests
against the now ousted president.
With that advice still in place, Thomas Cook has cancelled all
flights from the U.K. to Tunisia until after Feb. 27 and TUI Travel
has cancelled all flights until after Feb. 16 and is allowing
customers who have already booked trips to the country up to Feb.
27 to amend their holidays for free.
-By Steve McGrath, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9284;
steve.mcgrath@dowjones.com
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