EgyptAir has resumed air freight service to New York after a three-year halt following the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in an Islamist bomb attack, a source at the flagship carrier said on Thursday.
“(The United States) was apprehensive after the incident, and this may be normal for it, but security procedures and precautions are greater now. It saw there is no (more) need for it (suspension of air freight),” the source told Reuters.
A bomb spirited aboard the Russian airliner brought it down in Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 on board. The attack prompted Russia to halt all flights to Egypt and Britain to cease flights to Sinai.
EgyptAir resumed taking freight on its commercial flights to New York on Wednesday, the source said. There would be one freight-bearing flight each day of the week with a capacity of 10-15 tonnes of cargo per flight.
He said EgyptAir also had preliminary plans to start freight service to Washington D.C.
EgyptAir had continued U.S.-bound flights carrying passenger luggage throughout the suspension of freight service.
Sources told Reuters last year that U.S. authorities had suspended cargo transports due to a lack of confidence in security measures at Cairo airport.
