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Holiday firms cancel trips to Egypt

TRAVEL companies began to cancel trips to Egypt yesterday as the chaos in the country continued to spread from Cairo.

Jet2, which flies from Newcastle International Airport to Sharm el Sheikh, was sticking to its schedules last night and British Airways and the Foreign Office said the main resorts seemed to be calm.

But their assurances were hedged with caution as Tui, the parent company of Thompson and First Choice, said it had cancelled several flights to Egypt on Foreign Office advice.

Flights to resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada and Marsa Alam were not affected by the demonstrations and Tui said its services would still operate to and from the resorts.

The tour operator said it had 11,000 customers in Egypt including 8,700 in Sharm el Sheikh and 950 in Luxor.

Crowds filled the Cairo’s airport as people desperately sought to leave.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britons should get out of the major cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez if they could. US citizens are also being advised to leave.

Gangs of armed men were said to have attacked four prisons freeing thousands of inmates including key activists in the influential but outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Looters and robbers took advantage of a melting away of the police presence in Cairo, with only citizen vigilantes to stop them.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .