Sharm el Sheikh Flights Cancelled Into New Year

British Airways and easyJet have extended their cancellation of all flights to and from Sharm el Sheikh until the New Year in the wake of the UK Government’s security alert earlier this month.

Carriers scrapped travel to Sharm after Britain said the downing of a Russian flight from the Egyptian resort was likely to have been caused by a bomb. This has since been confirmed by Moscow.

Airlines scrambled to get passengers home after the alert and a number have cancelled all flights there until the middle of next month.

Now (NYSE: DNOW - news) , British Airways has said that "following discussions with the Government" it is cancelling all flights to and from Sharm until 14 January while easyJet is cancelling all flights to 6 January.

BA said: "We are keeping flights which are scheduled to operate from Saturday January 16, 2016 under review. The safety and security of our customers will continue to be our top priorities in any decisions we may make."

Customers who were due to travel on a cancelled flight can claim a full refund or use the value of the ticket towards another flight on the carrier's network. They could also rebook on an alternative date to Sharm.

Easyjet (Other OTC: EJTTF - news) said its move was "to help provide some certainty for our customers’ travel arrangements over the Christmas period".

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) said customers on affected flights would have the option to fly to another destination in its network, receive a full refund or arrange a flight voucher for future flights.

The airline said: "We are sorry for the inconvenience this will obviously cause, but we hope that being clear with all our customers at this point helps you to manage your plans with more certainty.

"The situation is beyond our control and passenger safety will always be our number one priority."

Easyjet flew back 4,500 passengers from Sharm el Sheikh from 4 November to 17 November after the initial security alert. It expects 5,000 to be affected by the cancellation over the Christmas period.

The low-cost airline normally operates 20-25 flights a week to Sharm from Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and Luton. It also operates small number from Milan’s Malpensa airport.

Monarch has cancelled flights until 19 December while Thomson has done so up to and including 9 December and Thomas Cook (Xetra: A0MR3W - news) until 10 December.