CAIRO, Aug 24 (Aswat Masriya) - Turkish Airlines has decided to resume its flights to Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh starting September 10, the Turkish embassy in Cairo said on Wednesday.

Turkey’s national flag carrier suspended its flights to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the wake of the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all 224 people aboard.

The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying it had planted a bomb onboard the plane that was heading from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in Russia. Egypt maintains that there is no evidence proving that this was a terrorist attack. 

According to the Turkish embassy’s statement, the airline will operate four flights per week to Sharm El-Sheikh. 

The Turkish decision comes few days after Russia, who had also suspended its flights to Egypt, revealed its intentions to ease restrictions on air flights heading to Egypt.

Russia said it would send a trial flight to Cairo prior to possible resumption of flights between the two countries.

The finance minister said earlier in August that tourism losses in the last 10 months were the worst in 15 years. The number of tourists coming to Egypt fell by 51.7 per cent in July, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The biggest drop in tourism was recorded last June when the number of tourists declined by 59.9 per cent, compared to the same month in 2015, according CAPMAS.

The Egyptian state has been trying to revive the tourism sector, which has been deteriorating over the past five years of political turmoil.