No re-booking charges for passengers travelling to Kuwait next week: Air India Express

Air India's international budget arm Air India Express on Wednesday said it will not charge any fee on re-booking of tickets by the passengers travelling to Kuwait between March 8-15 following the issuance of fresh instructions by the Kuwaiti government in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Such passengers can rebook a date that falls within seven days of the original booking date, Air India Express said in a statement.

The instructions mandatorily require the passengers to undergo complete medical examination and to obtain a certificate from the health centres approved by the Kuwait Embassy in India to confirm that they are free from coronavirus before entering the Gulf country. The airline said there are five such centres each at Kozhikode and Kochi and another three centres at Mangalore.

"In order to facilitate the compliance of this requirement, Air India Express has decided to allow free date modification to passengers who are booked to fly to Kuwait between March 8 and 15," the airline said.

The global death toll due to the deadly disease has mounted to 3,123 and confirmed cases surpassed 91,783.

India has so far reported 28 positive cases of coronavirus, which includes 16 Italian tourists.

Besides, over six lakh people have already been screened at 21 airports for coronavirus.

As per the recent update, Saudi Arabia is permitting passengers holding visit /family/business visa to travel to Dammam and Riyadh in addition to resident permit holders, Air India Express said.

Passengers other than resident permit holders must hold a return ticket. Passengers holding Umrah visa and tourist visa are not permitted to travel to Saudi Arabia.