Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ
Travel agents are helping their New Zealand clients get out of the Middle East.
It has been almost a week since the US and Israel began bombing Iran, which is carrying out retaliatory strikes on US bases and embassies.
Most commercial flights are not operating, with much of the region’s airspace closed.
Paul Diamond from Wendy Wu Tours said the company was helping to evacuate six New Zealand clients from Egypt.
“They were due to carry on through to Jordan. But obviously, with the travel warnings out, we decided that it was only right for the safety of the passengers to cancel the Jordan part of the trip and to find ways to get them home early.”
He said the clients were booked on upcoming flights from Cairo to Auckland via China.
He said one of their clients was not able to evacuate via London because of recent changes to immigration rules, meaning dual citizens can no longer use a foreign passport to enter the UK.
“We couldn’t reroute them back through the UK because even though they were born in Britain, they didn’t have a British passport with them. They only had their New Zealand passport. With the new immigration changes, EgyptAir told us that they wouldn’t be able to get on the flight to transit through London because they would have had to go through customs.”
He said they had rerouted or cancelled all tours going through the Middle East since the conflict broke out, affecting about 500 of their clients across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK so far.
“We won’t operate our tours, and we won’t send passengers through any country if there is a travel warning that says to avoid non-essential travel. We always cancel our tours and make other arrangements while those warnings are in place.
“We’re going to see a lot of disruption, not just for us, but for a lot of people looking to travel to Europe that have got their tickets booked with Middle Eastern carriers, which, since Covid, have been one of our main routes to get New Zealanders over to Europe.”
Flight Centre general manager Heidi Walker said some New Zealanders had been able to get on flights from Dubai to Sydney.
Flight Centre NZ general manager Heidi Walker. Supplied / Flight Centre
“We’ve been in daily correspondence with Emirates in New Zealand and many of the other airlines as well. They’ve been helping us get people onto the limited flights that are departing. Emirates has managed to get a few flights from Dubai into Australia, and those have been really beneficial to everyone trying to get out of there.”
She could not say how many clients were in the Middle East currently, but about 100 had planned to travel via Dubai in March.
“We’re reaching out to those customers who have booked with us to make sure that we can find the best solution for them. Everyone is a little bit different about what they want to do and where they need to get to.
“We are saying to everybody to make their own decisions, to not rush into any decisions. We’re trying to give them all the information that we have and refer them to where they can find information about the safety of the destination that they’re travelling to.”
She said there was no firm date on when Dubai to Auckland flights would resume.
“The message from Emirates, which I fully support, is that when it is safe to be able to travel, then they will look at that. But until the point where it’s safe, they won’t be resuming those flights.
“At the moment, the Dubai-Sydney flights are definitely filling our requirement to help New Zealanders out of Dubai.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
