As the ban against 34 countries continues over fears of the coronavirus spread, and with rising reports of a possibility of a second coronavirus wave of infections, the number of expats eager to return to Kuwait for their jobs, reunite with their families and resume their lives in the country through transit flights has increased considerably, Al Qabas daily reported.
Dubai was the destination of choice from where expats could quarantine but due to the shortage of available flights from Dubai to Kuwait, Ethiopia has emerged as an option for countries where expats can quarantine before traveling to Kuwait on transit flights, joining the list of countries benefiting from the newly emerged “transit business”.
This is especially fortuitous for passengers after prices rose to KD700 dinars for a single passenger package from Dubai to Kuwait.
Al-Qabas daily reported that Ethiopia is a good option for arrivals from African countries, as well as for Egyptians and the Northwestern African countries as it is not among the countries on Kuwait’s travel ban, and does not require a visa while hotel accommodations are cheap and available.
To travel to Kuwait from Ethiopia compared to other trips is far cheaper, a travel package costs approximately KD200 dinars, including travel tickets, hotel accommodation and medical tests.
Transit air traffic to Kuwait has witnessed a significant increase in recent weeks, with Dubai topping the list as the most popular destination, due to the ease of obtaining a tourist visa, residency for two weeks for quarantine, and then traveling to Kuwait on transit flights. However, it appears trips from Dubai to Kuwait will be far more difficult in the coming period, as news surfaces of a government move to control the number of arrivals due to the increase in their numbers compared to the previous period, and the rising fears of the possibility of a second coronavirus wave.
This is despite the fact that arrivals undergo a “PCR” test for the coronavirus several times in their countries, at the transit station, and after passing through Kuwait airport as part of a random check.
In the past two weeks, a source mentioned to the daily that many flights were canceled and postponed without giving reasons, in addition to the flights operating at less than half its capacity, which ultimately led to an unprecedented increase in ticket prices, with the value of tickets from Dubai to Kuwait rising to KD700 dinars.
The daily also reported that there are hundreds of Egyptians stranded in Dubai facing the unknown due to their involvement with Egyptian tourism companies. The Ministry of Immigration had to intervene to help about 300 Egyptians in Dubai, who were defrauded and facing difficult circumstances due to their inability to return to Kuwait or even to Egypt.
With the increase in expats wishing to return to Kuwait, the ticket prices for traveling from Dubai to Kuwait jumped 14 times, it was KD50 dinars and hiked to KD700 dinars, due to the high numbers travelers eager to return to Kuwait and the limited travel seats and daily flights. The countries from where expats are allowed to enter Kuwait benefited from the health authorities’ decision to ban the entry of expats from 34 countries into Kuwait, while Kuwait lost a great opportunity to revitalize its economy by supporting institutional quarantine for expats coming to the country for a period of 14 days, and instead boosted the economy of other countries.
In this regard, a member of the Federation of Tourism and Travel Offices, Abdul Rahman Al-Kharafi, confirmed to Al-Qabas that this decision was improvised and ill-considered from the economic side, which caused heavy losses for many sectors, the most important of which are travel, hotels and transportation. He pointed out that it was possible to exploit the return of expats, by making it easier for them to quarantine in Kuwait hotels, instead of supporting the economy of countries, which became a haven for the return of Kuwait residing expats.
Regarding the reasons for the increase in return tickets from Dubai to Kuwait, Al-Kharafi said, according to indicators and statistics, that “the number of expats outside the country who want to return is estimated at 160,000, all of them from the 34 banned countries, and many of them made Dubai a transit station for returning to Kuwait, due to the low hotel prices and the ease of procedures.”
Al-Kharafi also pointed out that “Expats returning through Dubai have been subjected to many cases of fraud by some travel companies that facilitated their travel from their countries to Dubai, but were unable to provide travel tickets to Kuwait, due to the lack of available flights.” He noted, “All reservations are closed until mid-November, and there is no choice but to increase the operating capacity of flights between the two terminals.”
Highlighting the plight of citizens, Al-Kharafi noted that the citizens are most affected by the air ticket crisis, who are unable to travel to Dubai during the holidays due to how expensive the return trip to the country is, reaching price levels not seen even in travel to faraway countries, such as America and Canada. He called on the Civil Aviation to allocate a “quota” for citizens on every flight coming from Dubai to Kuwait.”