Egypt resumed direct commercial flights to Sudan on Tuesday, 5 September, for the first time since war broke out in Sudan, nearly five months ago. With 120 passengers on board, Egypt’s national carrier, EgyptAir, traveled from Cairo International Airport to Port Sudan International Airport. The return trip carried 115 passengers. After this flight, which was welcomed by Egyptian and Sudanese authorities, EgyptAir is set to operate a weekly round trip to Port Sudan. This comes following the meeting between Sudan’s top military officer, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al Sisi in Egypt’s El Alamein – Burhan’s first trip abroad since violence erupted. In August, Sudan reopened the airspace in the east of the country, and launched an alternative air navigation center in the eastern city of Port Sudan. Sudan’s airspace has been closed since the beginning of the war in mid April. Since then, Khartoum International Airport has been out of service, as air navigation systems were affected by clashes between the two parties near the airport. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a paramilitary group that operated as a militia during the…
