Kuwait Direct Flights To India: Kuwait sees first direct flight to India after Feb 28 on Sunday; eyes tentative resumption | India News
NEW DELHI: Amid an elusive ceasefire in the West Asia war, air communications with the most isolated parts of the region have resumed very slowly and tentatively. Sunday saw the first direct flight out of Kuwait since February 28 to India and some other countries. As of now, Kuwait’s Jazeera is planning weekly to see how the situation in the region develops. From April 21, Gulf Air flights began operating between Bahrain International Airport and destinations in India The UAE, however, is yet to open its doors to foreign carriers from India for this summerIndians are the largest outbound community among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries. While Bahrain and Kuwait were the worst affected in terms of air connectivity, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates saw limited flights. There are scheduled services only in Oman and Saudi. “Saudi airspace is now almost fully open and at pre-February 28 levels,” said a senior official of an Indian airline. Iran is also planning to open its airspace.“Happy to be the first flight to India as flight operations from Kuwait International Airport resumed (Sunday). India stands in solidarity with Kuwait,” Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Parmita Tripathi said on Sunday, as low-cost Jazeera Airways resumed its first direct flight to Kuwait International Airport after 57 days of closure. On the first day, it operated flights from Kuwait to Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul and Mumbai. It will start flying from Kuwait to Delhi and Kochi among other places this week.Jazeera Airways’ Indian-origin CEO Barathan Pasupathi told TOI: “The network (outside Kuwait) will grow gradually. As per the guidelines we are operating Kuwait airport from 8 am to 4 pm. For this week we are flying direct flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi with 14 flights. To and from all other (Indian) cities, we operate through Dammam. We will gradually go direct.” The airline started operating flights to and from Dammam, Saudi Arabia from February 28.As part of the temporary operational procedure, passengers were asked to update their passport information 12 hours before their flight. Jazeera’s Pashupati added: “Sunday’s departure from Jazeera Terminal 5 marks a defining milestone in our return to direct connectivity from Kuwait. It goes beyond resuming these six routes. It represents the restoration of direct connectivity for our communities and a reaffirmation of our role in evacuating people and essential supply chains from Kuwait.” As of May 2, Jazeera Airways has scheduled 48 flights to Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Mumbai, Amman, Damascus, Delhi, Kochi, Jeddah and Riyadh. The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has started preparations for Hajj visitors from the country. “Ambassador Suhail Khan visited Makkah and supervised arrangements for Indian pilgrims. He also received the first batch of Indian pilgrims arriving in Makkah from Madinah by train,” it said on X Sunday.
