Hijack increases concerns about tourism

The hijack of EgyptAir's plane on Tuesday is likely to negatively affect Egypt's efforts to revive its ailing tourism industry despite the fact that the incident seems to be unrelated to terrorism and all the passengers and crew were released unharmed.

Egyptian Seif-Eddin Mostafa, 59, hijacked an EgyptAir Airbus 320 as it took off from Borg al-Arab airport in Alexandria en route to Cairo airport after threatening the crew with a fake explosive belt, forcing the plane to land in Cyprus's Larnaca airport.

"In fact, it was not a terrorist act at all. Nonetheless, it will leave a negative impression about Egypt's air navigation safety and security although there was no security shortfall by Egyptian authorities," said Bashir Abdel-Fattah, political expert and researcher at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.