Director of Operations Department at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Mansour Al Hashimi revealed that about 92,000 expats including residency visa violators traveled by 600 flights from Kuwait in the past three months (April, May and June) through Kuwait International Airport, reported Al Rai daily.
The DGCA received requests from several countries and embassies expressing their desire to operate evacuation flights for their nationals to their countries, and as soon the requests were received, approval was granted within 24 hours for domestic or international flights.
The various number of flights per day was according to the reservations by outgoing passengers. Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the airport was not completely closed but only commercial flights were suspended while commercial cargo flights carrying food supplies and medical supplies continue. Besides evacuation flights for citizens from abroad, many departing flights for expats leaving the country were organized, which shows Kuwait International Airport has not closed during the coronavirus crisis and continues to operate 24 hours a day.
Regarding incoming flights at Kuwait International Airport and commercial flights for departure or arrival, Al-Hashemi said, “We are waiting for the hour to start operating flights, according to the schedule and plans that have been put in place by the Supreme Committee, which includes several government agencies, but so far we are still waiting for official instructions from the cabinet and health authorities. No date has been set yet for resuming operations of the airport. We have 3 stages that have been defined according to the committee formed by the cabinet, and we are awaiting approval for work to resume according to a timetable.”
The daily reported that expats with valid residency visas who are stranded outside Kuwait, until now there has been no instructions issued to allow these expatriates to return. Currently, only Kuwait nationals and their first-degree relatives and domestic workers, provided that the sponsor is accompanying them are allowed to travel. Citizens are allowed to travel as per the instructions only in exceptional cases and conditions determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior. All those who are permitted to travel at the present time are only students and patients, some special cases that need to get approval from the concerned authorities.
Whoever travels has to sign a pledge during departure that he will be solely responsible for his health. Al-Hashemi added the service outlets at the airport continue to operate as before on the terms of the Cabinet, whether banks, restaurants, banking and cafe while adhering to the terms and decisions of the Ministry of Health for providing services to people.
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