Sharm el Sheikh flight suspensions: easyJet tells passengers they can fly home tomorrow - without their luggage

easyJet will send out nine empty planes from the UK on 6 November to bring more than 1,500 passengers home

easyJet will send out nine empty planes from the UK to bring more than 1,500 passengers home, four to Gatwick, four to Luton and one to Stanstead (Getty)

British holidaymakers stranded in Egypt’s main tourist resort have been told they can start to fly home on 6 November - but they will be allowed only cabin baggage.

The main scheduled airline operating to Sharm el Sheikh, easyJet, will send out nine empty planes from the UK on 6 November to bring more than 1,500 passengers home. Four will fly to Gatwick, four to Luton and one to Stansted.

The airline is telling passengers: “You should now have received a text message and/or email outlining your new flight details.” But it also warns of “additional security restrictions that the UK Government have placed on your return flight”.

According to a statement on easyJet’s website, airlines bound for Britain have been told not to carry checked-in baggage in the hold. Instead, passengers will encounter an extraordinary handling process.

“When you arrive at the airport please go to the bag drop desk as normal. Once there, you will be greeted by our ground crew, provided with a further letter and a baggage form (printed on the back of the letter). You will need to complete a form for each piece of hold luggage.

“Your hold luggage will then be accepted and tagged at bag drop as normal. Arrangements are being made to return your bags back to the UK where they will be returned to you.

“Hold luggage will be brought back to the UK by a government agency and will be returned to you by courier. We anticipate that to be within the next 7 days.”

This unprecedented move indicates that the government is now convinced an explosive device was present among passengers’ baggage in the hold of the Metrojet flight that crashed in the Sinai desert on 31 October on a flight from Sharm el Sheikh to St Petersburg.

A team of security experts has been assessing security standards at Egypt’s key tourism airport, and setting up procedures for a second, British-managed security screening process.

In a move that emulates the decisions of the leading British tour operators, easyJet has suspended all passenger flights from the UK to Sharm el Sheikh for the next week.