CAIRO, Dec 22 (Aswat Masriya) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that flights will resume between both countries soon, in a phone call on Wednesday.

Al-Sisi expressed his condolences for Putin during a phone call over the killing of Russian ambassador in Turkey Andrei Karlov during the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara on Tuesday.

According to state run newspaper Al-Ahram, both presidents agreed to increase cooperation across different fields; most importantly fighting terrorism.

In October 2015, Russian airplane Airbus A321 crashed few minutes after taking off from South Sinai's Sharm El-Sheikh resort city, leaving all 224 passengers and crew dead.

The crash has taken its toll on the tourism industry with other countries suspending their flights to Egypt, including Turkey and the UK. 

In September, Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that Egypt lost over half of its tourists in the first half of 2016 compared with the same period last year.

EgyptAir had earlier announced in late August that the losses totaled approximately $14 billion since the January 25 uprising in 2011, amid diminishing tourism traffic to the country.