Seeking to beat Gulf ban with Uzbek detour

KOZHIKODE: Expatriates, with the help of travel agencies, are now looking at new ways to overcome the ban on direct flights from India to many Gulf countries, including UAE and Oman. Travel agencies have begun taking bookings for tickets in charter flights from Kerala to Oman via Uzbekistan, which includes a 14-day stay in the Central Asian country.
The ban came into force on April 24 after the transit routes initially used to reach the Gulf through countries like Nepal and Maldives were blocked after those countries tightened norms for Indian passengers.
The temporary suspension of flights from India was announced following a surge in cases in the second wave of Covid-19. Alhind Travels is accepting bookings from passengers intending to travel from Kozhikode to Oman via Uzbekistan on May 25. The travel firm will fly the passengers in a chartered flight from Calicut to Tashkent and would fly them to Muscat after they complete their 14-day quarantine.
“Many are desperate to travel to the Gulf for different reasons. Currently, people who have to undertake emergency travel to UAE and Saudi Arabia are travelling via Bahrain after undergoing 14-day quarantine there before flying to their destinations. But it is difficult to get visas from Bahrain and it costs around Rs 1.1 lakh for the package,” said Yassir Mundodan, regional manager of Alhind Travels.
“The advantage of transit via Uzbekistan is that the passengers can complete their quarantine there without much difficulty. They can fly to Oman after conducting an RT-PCR test. Within a day, we received 20 bookings for the 180 seats in the charter flight,” he added. The fare package including air tickets and the14-day stay in Tashkent would cost Rs 1.35 lakh.