Malta’s national airline Air Malta resumed its direct flights to Cairo after 12 years of suspension, Egypt’s Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat said Thursday.

“The ministry attaches importance to diversifying the tourism export markets to Egypt and opening new markets.” al-Mashat said in a statement issued by Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

Spain’s Iberia Airlines also announced intention to operate four direct flights every week between Madrid and Cairo starting from early March 2020, she added.

The minister said that the growing number of international airlines resuming direct flights to Cairo indicates the “positive results” of the ministry’s tourism promotion campaign.

The statement did not mention the reason for Air Malta’s decision to suspend direct flights to Cairo in 2007, but Egypt’s official Al-Ahram news website reported that it was “influenced by economic factors”.

Egypt is working hard to revive its vital tourism sector that has suffered since 2011 from unstable political and security conditions, which have significantly improved in recent years.