Officials in Cyprus say a chartered flight evacuating US citizens out of Egypt was expected to arrive on the island yesterday.
US embassy officials had no immediate details on the number of passengers, and how many flights would be landing in Cyprus yesterday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs told reporters on Sunday she expects it would take several flights over the coming days to fly out thousands of Americans who want to leave Egypt, through Europe. She said the US might also send charters to other cities such as Luxor, if there are Americans stranded there.
Americans taking the charter will be billed for the flight and must make their own travel arrangements home from Europe.
Canada also announced on Sunday it would charter flights to fly Canadians who wish to leave to London, Paris or Frankfurt.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said charter flights were to begin yesterday. He said those onboard the charter flights will have to sign a contract saying they will repay their portion of the costs.
Australia, however, is offering free flights for its citizens.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday that Canberra had chartered a Boeing 747 to airlift Australians out of Egypt.
“I have determined that we will make available an evacuation flight for Australians from Egypt. The flight will be a Qantas plane that the government has chartered,” Gillard told reporters.
“There is significant pressure on commercial flights and some disruption and delay,” she said. “In these circumstances I have determined that the best course of action is to make this assisted evacuation flight available ... at no cost to Australians who travel on it.”
Due to depart tomorrow, the jet will ferry passengers to London or Frankfurt, where it will be met by Australian foreign officials who would help arrange onward travel. Further flights would be chartered if necessary.
TAIWAN
Taiwan’s government is also arranging charter flights for its nationals.
At present, there are more than 500 Taiwanese in 28 tour groups in Egypt, while the number of individual tourists was estimated at about 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The first charter flight, with 150 available seats, was scheduled to fly from Jordan to Cairo at 8pm last night and then depart at 10:30pm for Frankfurt, Germany, Department of African Affairs Director-General Samuel Chen (陳士良) said in Taipei last night.
Chen said local airlines would be available at Frankfurt Airport to fly Taiwanese home under the arrangement of local travel agencies and airlines.
Both China Airlines and EVA Airways fly to Frankfurt.
The ministry has sent Liu Yu-ming (劉裕民), a diplomat stationed in Jordan, to Cairo to take care of Taiwanese and other charter flights from Cairo to Frankfurt will be made available at the earliest possible date, it said.
Taiwanese in Egypt are being advised to contact the ministry’s offices in Jordan and Libya or the office of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council in Cairo, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, China said it sent two planes yesterday to pick up its citizens stranded in Cairo. The People’s Daily Web site says Air China and Hainan Airlines have each sent an Airbus A330 plane to Cairo to evacuate Chinese citizens. The report said there were more than 500 Chinese at the airport.
Japan has also organized flights for its nationals, while Jetair NV, a Belgian tour company, has begun evacuating its holidaymakers.
Five extra aircraft were being sent yesterday to bring all passengers back from Egypt, Jetair said in a statement on its Web site. The company also said it has canceled all flights to Egypt until Sunday.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC said they were relocating expatriate dependents from Egypt.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion