KUWAIT: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) instructed airlines not to charge more than KD 60 for the two PCR tests for passengers arriving to Kuwait, which is the maximum charge approved by the health ministry of KD 30 per test, Al-Rai Arabic daily reported yesterday, quoting informed sources.

Airlines will not have to charge the maximum allowed price of KD 30, allowing companies to work according to their competitive strategies by offering tests at a reduced price, provided it does not exceed KD 60, the sources said. They added that this will allow airlines to have better competitiveness in price reductions of PCR tests so that they satisfy passengers, bearing in mind that prices have reached unimaginable levels due to a lack of supply, which is in the interest of both airlines and passengers.

According to the sources, work is ongoing to have the test areas ready on Feb 6, when the decision to reduce the number of passengers by 80 percent will end. This will allow the higher committee for combating the coronavirus to take less restrictive decisions with regards to air traffic. The sources said it is not possible to base all decisions concerning air traffic in Kuwait on the daily case average without referring to the source of the infection.

They added decisions should be based on accurate official statistics with regards to airport traffic and declaring the number of cases discovered among arrivals from abroad and not the total number of infections in the country without deciding the source of infection. This is so that the airport is not falsely accused, because arriving passengers follow precautionary health measures through tests they undergo before traveling all the way to random tests upon arrival and home or institutional quarantine for 14 days.