Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) has announced it will resume flights to the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh early next month.

The carrier, as with many other international airlines, withdrew from the market in November last year shortly after a MetroJet (Russian Federation) (Moscow Domodedovo) A321-200 was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a bomb believed to have been placed on-board by Islamic State-affiliated terrorists.

As such, Turkish Airlines says its 4x weekly Istanbul Atatürk-Sharm el Sheikh service will begin on September 10.

For its part, Russia is nearing a possible green light for the resumption of its carriers' respective Sharm el Sheikh services. Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation, Sherif Fathy, told a press conference this week that flights could resume in October. The resumption is, however, dependent on the Russian authorities giving their approval to upgraded security measures, he said.

A test flight is expected to be run either later this month or early next month.