We've seen countries take all kinds of drastic measures in recent weeks, though Kuwait is taking an almost unprecedented step. Starting Friday, March 13, 2020, Kuwait International Airport will close for passenger service indefinitely, meaning commercial flights to & from the airport are canceled. Apparently there will be some exceptions only for Kuwaiti nationals looking…
Continue reading: Kuwait Airport Closing, All Commercial Flights Banned
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What's the point? It's already in the country and spreading quickly regardless of the official count. Closing borders and airports won't stop that.
At this point efforts should focus on cleanliness practices and getting care to those who need it.
And Kuwait’s overseas who are returning home ? When you mentioned charters , that means the government has responsibility to arrange them Mind you I imagine a large number of locals can afford it , however they are reliant on overseas foreign workers to meet their needs
Will Qatar be next ( having gone from 24 cases to 268 in just one day, and in the context of WHO declaring a pandemic just now)
The "what's the point" argument is not that compelling. This isn't an all-or-nothing proposition, you mitigate wherever you can so the healthcare system doesn't crash. I applaud Kuwait for doing this; they are heeding the counsel of scientists and doctors. There are too many morons running around with the "just a flu bro" and "lol can't stop me living my life" mantras and god knows what these diseased rats could have picked up along the way.
Flight is transiting in kuwait between bahrain and AMS on sunday. Whats the chance they just skip the stop rather than canceling all together?
We have to remember that Kuwait does not have beautiful testing kits like we have here, or a president whose uncle was a great scientist...
All they can do is take precautionary measures.
It would seem to be a logical step if you want to slow down transmission of a virus is to minimize movement of people. The closing down of an International airport would certainly slow down the movement of people. This move may not stop people in Kuwait from getting the virus, but it would slow down the transmission, which would give local authorities more time to respond medically to the needs of the local population.
The entire world needs to be put in lockdown. The military should deliver food and medicine. All utility payments suspended. The Olympics need to be canceled(don't get me started on the IOC).
Seeing the sudden increase of 236 cases in Qatar today isn't it time the middle East airlines closed their airports. Financially they can afford. Well done to kuwait. I hope QATAR and UAE follow
@jedipenguin. Idiotic comment
@Lucky the DGCA ( civil aviation authority) states on their website that the closure of Kuwait airport is fake news
Kuwaiti Airport official site says this is a rumor
https://www.dgca.gov.kw/NewsDetails/Index/53
Iran Iraq and Bangladesh are closing down their airports as well.
There goes my trip to bagdad for the inaugural gay pride March bagdad on the 21st.
If you think about countries that take extreme cautions, look into Mongolia. A tiny nation that has a long border with China and majority of the food is coming from China closed their border in January. Think about the economic burden that many countries wanted to avoid and didn't close their border or flights! On Feb 25, Mongolia banned domestic travels and asked all arriving international travel passengers to be self quarantined for 14 days. But a french national who is working in Mongolia arrived from his vacation in Italy and travelled domestically in Mongolia without self quarantining, and he is the first confirmed case in the country. Effective yesterday, the country banned all commercial flights into Mongolia before Kuwait.
https://mn.usembassy.gov/security-alert-travel-restrictions-expanded-by-mongolian-government-in-response-to-corona-virus-covid-19-02-25-2020/
Who is the source of this information? Official government site?
In any case, they can afford to shutdown the whole country let alone the airport.
Most countries don’t have the luxury to do that.
Ben
PLEASE CITE YOUR SOURCE
Other blogs are citing you as their justification for their posts but what is yours?
@Lucky its on their website that its fake news. "https://dgca.gov.kw/NewsDetails/Index/53"
The above link calling this fake news was posted prior to todays announcement from the Kuwait government twitter.
https://twitter.com/CGCKuwait/status/1237764791034433537
This closure has nothing to do with COVID-19.
It seems none of the posters above nor the article's author are fluent in Arabic.
The local Arabic media is full of information that this has to do with Egypt and the thousands of untested Egyptians that arrived in the last days as the result of political pressure from outside of Kuwait. Aljazeera announced several extra flights to from Egypt to Kuwait days BEFORE the closure was publicly known. How did they know? Draw your own conclusions from who owns that airline.
IMHO they are doing what the USA should have done months ago. I am also in awe of the Israeli approach which now has mandatory self quarantine for Israelis and non Israelis, in other words EVERYBODY. Those that can not arrange and provide a residential address where they will quarantine are barred from entry.
I'm glad.
Their Business Class lounge is a toilet. Friendly, helpful employees, but almost as disgusting as CMB.
Addis Ababa Bole Airport should do the same not only at this critical time but for good. The whole place smells like pig shit.
Malta has banned all flights to Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany.
Hard to find legitimate news sources, but this does seem to be one...
https://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/kuwait-locks-down/
To everyone asking if the information that Lucky had posted is legitimate. Well, I can confirm that is indeed true. I live in Kuwait and all flights are suspended from Friday until further notice, literally crippling Kuwait Airways, Jazeera Airways and Qatar Airways (Qatar Airways uses Kuwait and Muscat has hubs for transporting pax between Qatar and UAE/KSA/Bahrain, so it's unfortunate for QR to lose one of them). All flights will come to a standstill. Except Kuwait Airport's Terminal 3 (Sheikh Saad AlAbdallah Terminal), all other terminals will be deserted. T3 will be used exclusively for charter flights coming into the country.
- @Paolo, that's highly unlikely, since QR largely depends on transitting passengers. So, as of now, we wouldn't be expecting Qatar Airways to take these measures.
As an expat working in State of Kuwait, i can confirm that Kuwait International Airport is suspending all commercial flights indefinitely effective 13th March, 2020. Only cargo aircrafts will be allowed.
Kuwait government will start evacuating its citizen across the world. Only Kuwaiti citizen and their first degree relatives will be allowed to enter to kuwait during these times.
Kuwait Government has also declared public holiday for all ministries, education institutes, banks and government owned companies from March 12th - March 28th.
I was starting to wonder why my grindr feed wasn't showing as many new faces here in Kuwait as usual. Oh well, plenty of Kuwaitis to keep me happy for the next few weeks
People die from other diseases all the time and more than this new one. Stop being cry babies. Just because social media can get around quicker now a days. Don't mean you need to be afraid of every little thing happening in this world.
when will the flights ressume to kuwait from india anyone can give a appox.date upto when is this ban peroid
I honestly think is very unfair that Kuwait brings its people back to Kuwait but people from other nationalities cant return to their countries like Kuwaitis can do. This to me is very unfair. My husband it trapped over there and he is an american maybe we should not allow the kuwaitis leave from other countries so they know how it feels.
TO WHOMEVER IT MAY CONCERN TO,
KUWAIT AIRPORT, DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE WHILE THE WORLD IS FACING SUCH A BAD TIME???????
HALF MY FAMILY IS STUCK ON THE OTHERSIDE OF THE WORLD FOR MONTHS AND MAYBE PLACING RESTRICTIONS TO THE AIRPORT AND LETTING THEM BYPASS IS CONSIDERED TO BE TOTALLY SAFE.
DO YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN PEOPLE?
HAVE SOME HUMANITY, IM WAITING FOR MY FAMILY WHOS BEEN STUCK FOR MONTHS BECAUSE OF THE EXTENDED LOCKDOWN BUT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LETTING INDIVIDUALS BYPASS TO REACH THEIR DESTINATION. THEY ARE NOT TOURISTS. JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WILL ALLOW PLANES TO LAND AND HAVE NO PROBLEM AS LONG AS ALL PASSENGERS LANDING IS A RESIDENCE OF THE COUNTRY.
I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE TO YOU AND YOU ALLOW THEM TO BYPASS YOUR COUNTRY BEFORE LOCKDOWN REOPENS.
THANKYOU AND I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO HEAR BACK VIA SOME ACTION.