It was confusion mixed with despair for most people when they learnt about the closure of the Muscat airport and the country’s borders.
The closures, taken as a precautionary step against the fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 reported in the UK, have led to cancellation of flights to a number of Asian countries and Europe.
While the decision has come as a shock to many people who were wanting to travel as part of the government’s exit scheme, it is a spoilsport for many others, as it scattered their Christmas and New Year plans.
“I bought my ticket last week after readying the necessary papers as part of the exit scheme to fly home after a gap of five years on Tuesday. Now I have to get a new date and ticket”, said Moideen Ahmed, who hails from the South Indian state of Kerala.
The Supreme Committee dealing with the coronavirus development in the country, in line with the decisions taken by many countries in the world, decided to ban entry to and exit from the Sultanate via all travel outlets with effect from December 22 for one week.
Nasser al Wahaibi told Observer that his trip to Dubai had to be called off due to the border closure.
“I wanted to visit Dubai for a personal work in addition to meeting my friend. Since I planned to go by road, and the matter was not of that important, I can make it when the border reopens,” he said.
For Wasim Abdul Malik, cancellation of the flight to Muscat from Karachi has further delayed meeting his wife and children who were supposed to arrive on Tuesday.
“They have been away from me since February when they went to Pakistan. Due to the pandemic and expiry of my wife’s visa they couldn’t fly back. Now it has further been delayed,” Wasim said.
Travel agents, meanwhile, said that they have been incessantly receiving phone calls inquiring about the next travel date.
“We are not able to make any amendments regarding the ticket. We are waiting for guidelines from the airlines”, a senior official at a travel agency told Observer.
Oman Air in a statement on Monday said that passengers holding its flight reservations can contact its Call Centre at (+968) 24531111 or Oman Air representatives in their respective countries.
“In line with the directives of Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority, Oman Air will suspend all international passenger flights to and from Muscat starting from Tuesday, December 22, 2020, for a period of one week. For further updates on our flight operations and services, please refer to our website and official social media channels”, it said in a release.
A report from New Delhi, quoted India’s national carrier Air India on Tuesday to have announced one-time free rescheduling of tickets for passengers travelling from the United Kingdom, Oman and Saudi Arabia after the government’s decision to stop air travel in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Air India said that passengers who were booked to travel on now suspended flights from the UK, Oman, and Saudi Arabia can avail a one-time free rescheduling for travel completed within December 31.
“All penalties for one-time rescheduling, cancellation, rerouting will be waived for bookings between December 22 and 31,” it said.
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