5,000 jobs lost – ‘Hot file’ awaits travel agencies

Many citizens and expatriates are awaiting the opening of travel agencies starting from next week, in case government moves to the next stage of its plan to return to normal life and paves the way for the sector to re-operate in the country and to resolve the issue of travel tickets cancelled in consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.

The prices of tickets booked for March and April are estimated at KD 67 million. The sources at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation affirmed that government, according to its plan for gradual reopening, will allow travel agencies to start their activities in the event of moving to the second stage.

He indicated a large snowball is awaiting the resumption of those offices after a shutdown of almost three months on one hand since many bookers did not get refund for their cancelled tickets.

The source declared the issue of refund remains in the court of travel agencies, which are expected to refund the cancelled tickets upon the resumption of work after having received refund from the airlines, noting it will take time to refund the tickets in cash not in the form of subsequent tickets.

He revealed that many airlines have been negotiating with citizens and expatriates affected by the cancellation of tickets due to cancellation of flights at Kuwait International Airport and other airports over the new coronavirus pandemic to strike a deal towards issuing them new tickets with validity of one year starting from the date of cancellation of the tickets.

They can use the new tickets to their respective destinations at dates of their choice, as flights are expected to resume within coming months. He pointed out that intending passengers have recovered the value of most tickets purchased through airline websites or directly from the offices without problem, while many of them preferred to get tickets for future travel instead of cash refund.

They praised cooperation of concerned airlines such as Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines and Turkish Airlines in this matter. Tourism expert Kamal Kabsha revealed about the major damage sustained by the tourism and aviation sectors in Kuwait as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said about 5,000 employees of these sectors lost their jobs during the crisis, indicating that it is one of the largest sectors negatively affected by the crisis. In an interview, Kabsha explained that the Kuwaiti aviation and tourism sectors lost billions of revenues.

Source : Arab Times

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