According to official sources in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Kuwait will begin direct flights to all countries, including the ‘banned’ countries from January 2021.
Kuwait authorities said that the health authorities will decide on institutional quarantine within Kuwait in the coming days, as a preparation for approval to begin resuming direct flights next month.
The sources also confirmed that the health approvals will no longer be based only on arrival of Covid-19 vaccines, but it also depends on good management of quarantine process by local institutions and hotels, and the DGCA’s plan to manage people movement based on the plans set for a specific number of flights for each country.
Representatives in travel offices and hotel sector welcomed the move which permits direct flights and called on concerned authorities to reduce the mandatory quarantine period to 5-7 days instead of 14 days, especially as the entry condition requires passengers to have a PCR certificate to prove that they are Covid-19 free.
The sources in hotel sector believes that this will help contribute towards revitalizing the hotel sector in the coming period as soon as the airport opens after the closure of more than nine months which led to huge losses for local hotels.
Even travel agency officials are having great hopes on resumption of airport operations as the opening process will save the travel sector from bankruptcy after the agony that the sector suffered.
However, the DGCA denied opening direct flights for high-risk countries (the 34 banned countries) from January, and said that the matter is yet to be decided.
