Egypt has decided to operate as of Wednesday flights to Kuwait to repatriate Egyptian residents stranded in the Gulf country.
EgyptAir has coordinated efforts with the Egyptian Ministry of Emigration and the Kuwaiti Civil Aviation Authority. All aeroplanes heading to Kuwait or coming from it will be sterilised by EgyptAir preventive medicine teams.
“The Kuwaiti authorities have granted EgyptAir the right to commercial operation of one daily flight for a week (to transport) residents in Kuwait wishing to depart to Egypt,” said Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The daily flight will continue until 30 March.
Both Egypt and Kuwait have already halted flights with the outside world as part of precautions to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
In efforts to support Egyptians abroad, the government has made numerous flights to repatriate Egyptians stuck abroad.
Earlier this month, Minister of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs Nabila Makram announced that she had set up an emergency room to stay in touch with all Egyptian expats stuck overseas due to the coronavirus spread to help them return home in coordination with the Civil Aviation Ministry.
The Egyptian embassy in Malta operated on Monday a flight to repatriate 54 Egyptians and transporting Maltese residents in Egypt back to Malta.
People went on social media expressing their gratitude for the steps taken by the Egyptian government.
“Egypt send a flight to bring me back home, long live Egypt,” wrote a twitter user publishing his photo in Malta’s airport.
Egypt had also sent exceptional flights to repatriate Egyptians in the United Kingdom.
On Sunday, a flight by EgyptAir transported 150 Egyptians from the UK to Egypt. UK’s embassy to Egypt has advised British nationals in Egypt who wish to return home to make arrangements to ride this plane from Cairo to London.
On Saturday, Egypt had opened its borders with Sudan for four days, until Tuesday for Egyptians wishing to return. Afterwards, the land crossing will be closed as part of the two countries’ measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.
