Bahrain passengers and flights suffer due to sudden spike in COVID-19 cases

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The rising cases of COVID-19 infections in the Kingdom are digging a hole in the pockets of outbound travellers, who have to cancel their tickets after testing positive for the virus following Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), which are done 72 hours before travel.

This comes amid Bahrain reporting 7,042 cases on Monday along with 6,784 recoveries and three deaths.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a resident said he had to cancel air tickets twice after he and his family member tested positive for the virus at a five-day interval.

“We desperately wanted to go home as there were two consecutive deaths in our family. First I was tested positive for the virus and we rebooked the ticket, but we had to cancel them all again as my daughter was tested positive after five days. I have suffered huge losses and I can only blame the situation for this ordeal,” he said.

Another resident said he cancelled all his travel plans after testing positive for the virus.

“I had to travel urgently to Dubai and Indonesia for business purposes. Everything including the return tickets was booked when I tested positive for the virus. I suffered some money loss. But none can be blamed at the moment. I have cancelled all my travel plans.”

A leading airline executive said the industry is facing a difficult situation as many flights take off with a large number of vacant seats.

“Ticket cancellations have been high from the part of passengers to Dhaka, Indian and other South Asian cities. Book loads are extremely low.

For passengers who tested positive for COVID, we are rescheduling tickets free of charges and this is putting a heavy financial burden on the airline.

“Not all airlines are doing this, but we are doing as we don’t want our customers to suffer further during this tough time of the pandemic. The airline industry was almost inching back to normalcy, but now the rising cases have made the situation tough for us.”

The airline executive said that incoming passengers are only given most of the airlines

“the required oxygen to breathe”.

"We hope every country will emulate what Bahrain did and this will be beneficial for the large expatriate community in the Kingdom. If tested positive, they can quarantine themselves in their home countries.”

Travellers to Bahrain no longer need to show a negative PCR test to board flights to the country, the Civil Aviation Affairs authority announced last week.

Arrivals will need to take a PCR test on arrival and unvaccinated people will need to quarantine.

Bahrain relaxed its COVID-19 entry restrictions on January 6 this year, removing the quarantine requirement for vaccinated people and only requiring testing on arrival.

Previously, travellers were required to do RT-PCR tests on the fifth and 10th days of their stay.

The cost of the PCR test has been reduced to BD12.

A travel agency staff told The Daily Tribune that there have been many ticket cancellations from outbound travellers.

“The situation is not normal.

There were record calculations last week, but things are gradually improving.

I hope things will return to earlier stages as the COVID numbers start falling.