More mass demonstrations in Egypt are planned for today and Friday as protestors step up efforts to oust President Hosni Mubarak from power.
Anti government protesters barricaded in a tented camp in Cairo’s Tahrir Square have vowed to stay until Mubarak quits and hope to take their two-week campaign to the streets.
Hundreds of thousands of people took part in previous demonstrations and the United Nations says 300 people may have died so far. Egyptian opposition figures have reported little progress in talks with the government.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice remained unchanged, with guidance against all but essential travel to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez and to adhere to a 7pm to 6am nationwide curfew.
The curfew is not being enforced in the Red Sea resort area where UK are operators continuing to maintain their programmes.
British Airways and Bmi are maintaining flights from Cairo to London and Qatar Airways has made adjustments to its services operations to adhere to curfews in Alexandria and Cairo.
The Doha-based airline has revised its schedules to operate flights to and from the cities outside the restricted timings.
Additional capacity has been deployed since the start of civil unrest to handle more passengers departing Egypt to Doha and other points in the airline’s network.
Corporate jet division of the airline, Qatar Executive, is flying at near full capacity, using Bombardier aircraft to operate several flights out of Luxor.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: “Since the start of the unforeseen events in Egypt, we have monitored the situation closely and have taken proactive measures to repatriate nationals to Qatar, as well as other countries.
“As the national carrier, we are fully committed to ensure all Qataris are able to return safely, and also to ensure all connecting passengers are able to rebook and return to their countries as quickly as possible.”