Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2015 to Question 16092, how many UK nationals remain in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Regular flights to and from the UK to Sharm el Sheikh were suspended on 4 November. Flights to return UK nationals from Sharm el-Sheikh to the UK, supported by special security measures, ended on Tuesday 17 November. Those flights provided sufficient capacity to return all UK nationals who wished to travel home.In total over 16,000 passengers were returned home, and I commend the carriers who helped in facilitating this process. At the point at which flights stopped, we estimated that there were fewer than 200 UK nationals remaining in Sharm el-Sheikh. UK nationals who chose to remain in Sharm el-Sheikh were advised that they would need to make their own arrangements to travel.

We are working closely with the Egyptian authorities on the implementation of sustainable security measures so that flights between the UK and Sharm el-Sheikh can resume as soon as possible.