Luton and Stansted flights cancelled amid bomb fears

Peterborough-based travel company Thomas Cook has cancelled all flights and holidays to Sharm el Sheikh until November 25.

Customers due to travel up to Thursday December 10 will be offered the chance to re-book their trips or cancel them.

Meanwhile two Thomas Cook flights will depart Sharm el Sheikh this evening, bringing holidaymakers back to the UK.

A British aircraft carrying 189 passengers from Stansted Airport had a near-miss with a military missile when landing at Sharm el-Sheikh airport just over two months ago, it has emerged.

The incident has come to light as British tourists in the Egyptian resort begin to return home following the grounding of flights amid security fears.

Reports of the incident say the Thomson aircraft had to take evasive action but landed safely. Thomson reported the incident to the Department for Transport.

A UK government spokesperson told ITV News: "We investigated the reported incident at the time and concluded that it was not a targeted attack and was likely to be connected to routine exercises being conducted by the Egyptian military in the area at the time."

An easyJet flight carrying 179 passengers from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt has safely arrived back at Luton Airport.

easyJet had hoped to fly out hundreds more tourists on nine flights, but in the end the Egyptian authorities only allowed two to depart.

The other has gone to Gatwick. EasyJet hope to lay on more flights tomorrow.

Click below to see the flight land

easyJet have confirmed that their flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to Luton Airport has just taken off.

The EZY9398 flight is due to arrive back in Bedfordshire at around 16:00.

There are 179 passengers on board.

More: Only one easyJet flight allowed to return to the UK

Crowds of British tourists continue to be stranded at Sharm el-Sheikh airport as they await news following reports that Egyptian authorities have suspended UK rescue flights entering the airport.

One easyJet fight will be allowed to return to Luton Airport today from Sharm el-Sheikh, but the rest will be cancelled.

Another flight to Gatwick will also still go ahead.

Egyptian authorities have suspended "rescue flights" back to the UK according to the budget airline.

It was hoped that easyJet and other airlines would be able to resume some of its flights from Sharm el-Sheikh today but those plans have been scuppered.

Which flight has been allowed back?

• EZY9398 Sharm el-Sheikh to London Luton

Which flights have been cancelled?

• EZY9555 Sharm el-Sheikh to London Luton
• EZY9333 Sharm el-Sheikh to London Luton
• EZY9666 Sharm el-Sheikh to London Stansted
• EZY2398 Sharm el-Sheikh to London Luton

easyJet flight tracker

More: Egyptian authorities 'suspend rescue flights'

"Rescue flights" to bring back British tourists have been "suspended by Egyptian authorities" according to the Luton-based airline easyJet.

The budget airline had hoped to resume some of its flights from Sharm el-Sheikh today.

easyJet customers who are flying back to the UK tomorrow from Sharm el-Sheikh will only be allowed one item of cabin baggage, the budget airline have announced.

It's part of tighter security restrictions put in place by the government.

What will passengers be allowed?

Passengers will only be permitted to carry one item of cabin baggage containing essential items on board.

Hold luggage will be brought back to the UK by a government agency and will be returned by courier.

What do passengers do when they get to the airport?

When passengers arrive at the airport they'll need to go to the bag drop desk as normal.

Once there, they will be greeted by ground crew, provided with a further letter and a baggage form (printed on the back of the letter).

They will then need to complete a form for each piece of hold luggage.

The hold luggage will then be accepted and tagged at bag drop as normal.

Arrangements are being made to return the bags back to the UK where they will be returned.

More: easyJet to bring customers home on Friday

Luton-based easyJet have confirmed that they will resume their scheduled flights from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from tomorrow (November 6).

The airline will also run six extra flights in order to repatriate customers.

It means there will be easyJet 10 flights in total that will leave Sharm on Friday.

However, all flights in the opposite direction remain suspended until up to and including November 12.

The Association Of British Travel Agents has stressed that anyone who is due to fly out to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the next 48 hours should contact their tour operator.

All UK flights have been suspended amid bomb fears.

It's after US and UK intelligent suggested the Russian plane that crashed on Saturday may have been brought down by an explosive device.

Click below to hear from Daniele Broccoli from ABTA

More: Latest travel information