8 flights to leave Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh for Britain: minister

Eight out of 29 scheduled flights will leave Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh for Britain on Friday, an Egyptian official said, one day after Britain grounded all fights between the two countries due to a recent Russian airline crash over the Sinai peninsula.

Mohamed Hossam Kamal, the Egyptian minister of civil aviation, said 29 British planes planned to fly British tourists back home on Friday under strict security measures.

"But the companies have refused to carry the luggage of the passengers, so it was impossible for the airport to handle 120 tons of luggage left behind," Kamal said, referring to the reason behind the flight reduction.

"Till now, two British flights carrying 360 people have taken off the airport, with more passengers waiting," a source with the aviation authority told Xinhua.

On Thursday, Britain suspended all flights from and to Egypt after a recent Russian plane crash killed all 224 people on board.

Britain said it would resume flights from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday after agreeing on additional security measures with Cairo.

The British decision was made while Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was in London for a three-day visit over various regional and international issues.

Early on Thursday, several U.S. media reports cited unnamed sources as suggesting that a planted bomb might have caused the Russian plane crash in Egypt's Sinai last week. Endit