On June 7th, Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that direct flights to the UK would be allowed once again. The regulator has declared that flights will begin on Sunday, June 13th.
UK flights to resume in less than a week
The Kuwaiti government has announced via Twitter that direct flights to the UK will resume this coming Sunday. Translated from Arabic, this is what the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had to say:
“Based on the decision of the Council of Ministers, direct flights will be operated from the State of Kuwait to the United Kingdom, starting from Sunday 13/6/2021.”
It was on Wednesday, January 6th at 04:00 local time that Kuwait officially suspended direct commercial flights to and from the UK. The move was a direct response to news of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 detected in the UK.
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Strict entry policy still in effect for Kuwait arrivals
Despite this positive news for Kuwait’s carriers, the country still has tight restrictions in place for who can and cannot enter the country. This makes it difficult for many of Kuwait’s non-citizen residents to travel abroad, as there is little confidence that they will be able to return to their homes.
Indeed, arrivals into Kuwait are currently quite limited. The travel website WeGo notes only the following groups are allowed entry:
- Nationals of Kuwait;
- Children, husbands, and wives of nationals of Kuwait;
- Domestic workers of nationals of Kuwait.
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One flight per week per airline
According to Reuters, Kuwait will allow one direct flight to London per week for each licensed airline. In terms of carriers that we might see taking advantage of this allowance, just three come to mind:
- State-owned carrier Kuwait Airways
- Kuwait budget airline Jazeera Airways
- and UK flag carrier British Airways
At the time of this article’s publication, we were unable to find any reliable data indicating that any of these airlines had direct flights scheduled between the UK and Kuwait in the next week.
In fact, Kuwait Airways’ booking engine doesn’t give June as a searchable option, while select dates in July and even August result in empty search results. When it comes to Jazeera Airways, no flights could be found either.
Therefore, it appears that airlines have not been able to prepare for the government’s announcement, and we will have to wait and see if they will indeed schedule flights in accordance with this new governmental change in policy.
Unfortunately, however, when flights do resume, only a very small segment of Kuwait’s population will be allowed to take advantage. Others living in the country, such as expatriates and foreign workers, will have to remain in situ or else risk being refused entry upon return to Kuwait.
Have you flown to Kuwait before? Share your experience by leaving a comment.
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