Cairo: More than 242,000 expatriates and Kuwaitis are expected to use the Kuwait airport during an upcoming holiday lasting for 10 days coinciding with relaxed travel restrictions against COVID-19, according to figures carried by a local newspaper.
Around 55 per cent of the travellers will leave the country to spend the holiday abroad with the top destinations including Istanbul, Cairo, Dubai and Jeddah, Al Anba newspaper reported. The other 45 per cent of the passengers will arrive in Kuwait.
The figures show that the travellers will be carried aboard a total of 2,280 flights during the holiday or 228 flights on average per day.
The Kuwaiti government has given public sector employees a holiday starting on February 27 to mark the Independence Day, the Liberation Day and Al Israa Wal Miraj (Prophet Mohammed’s night journey)..
Eased travel measures went into effect on Sunday in Kuwait. They include scrapping pre-departure and on-arrival PCR testing for fully vaccinated travellers.
They also allow unvaccinated travellers to enter the country, provided they present a negative PCR test result conducted 72 hours before the flight, go into seven-day domestic quarantine after arrival and do another negative PCR test on the seventh day to end the quarantine, Al Anba said.
The fully vaccinated travellers, including those who obtained two doses of vaccination less than nine months ago and those who received the booster shots against COVID-19, are exempted from pre-arrival and on-arrival PCR tests as well as home quarantine.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has said that the travel measures and exemptions from the PCR testing include Kuwaiti and expatriate travellers.
