Kuwait’s civil aviation authority said yesterday that they have designed a plan for a gradual resumption of commercial flights as soon as the government gives the green signal. Commercial flights have been suspended at Kuwait Airport for the past several weeks as part of measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But dozens of repatriation flights operated from the airport either to bring back Kuwaitis or to send expats back home.
Spokesman for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Saad Al-Oteibi told the assembly television yesterday that the plan consists of three phases. Under the first phase, the airport will resume 20-30 percent of its operations which will rise to 60 percent in the second phase. He did not give a definitive timeframe for the resumption but said it should happen “soon”. However he added that the final phase will take a long time to complete.
Oteibi said the airport authorities have prepared strict preventive measures that include thermal cameras, social distancing, new arrangements inside aircrafts and also a different setup inside the airport. Travel in post-coronavirus will be different from travel before the pandemic, he said.
The health ministry meanwhile assured the public yesterday that the situation is well under control and there is no cause for panic from the steep rise in the number of new cases.
Spokesman for the ministry Abdullah Al-Sanad said that the rise in cases is within the expected range and because the ministry teams have resorted to intensive testing and active surveillance.
Kuwait Times
