The MFA is preparing a charter flight Riyadh-Bucharest, with 189 seats, for Romanians in Qatar
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) is preparing a charter flight Riyadh – Bucharest, with 189 seats, intended for Romanian citizens in Qatar, said the spokesman of the ministry, Andrei Tărnea, in a press conference on Saturday.
“In Qatar, we still have about 800 citizens under consideration for consular assistance of various types, so not just for repatriation. The good news is that we are about to complete the preparations for assisted repatriation, which involves the transfer of a part of these citizens from Qatar, those who have requested to return to the country, to Saudi Arabia, for a Riyadh-Bucharest flight, for the citizens stuck so far in Doha,” explained Tărnea, quoted by Agerpres.
Romanians from Qatar will be transported to the capital of Saudi Arabia by land.
He specified that among the beneficiaries are both Romanians who are in Qatar, as well as people who had stopovers in Doha and have been in transit for several days.
The capacity of the aircraft is 189 seats.
“As a result of the telephone contact of the citizens under the attention of the Romanian Embassy in Doha, we have a significant number of requests, which at the moment exceed the capacity of this flight. Consequently, even if it is a charter flight, it is not an evacuation flight, we are trying to see if priority cases can also be privileged. The capacity of the aircraft is 189 seats. We will see when the actual flight leaves from there and lands in Romania”, said the carrier word of Romanian diplomacy.
He emphasized that it is a charter flight, paid for by the passengers, and not an evacuation fully organized by the Romanian state.
“For the group from Qatar, there is a solution that we now have at our disposal, that is, a charter aircraft hired by Romania to make this flight. Once again, it is a charter flight, so they will pay for their tickets on this plane. We will not pay, the Romanian state will not pay. But the effort to organize this mission, which belongs to some travel agencies, some airlines, so there are costs that are not material in organizing these flights. And they must also be considered. For these citizens, this is the safest corridor we have, not the guarantee, but the highest probability that the planes can land and leave. Other flights are also being prepared, which we will communicate about in the coming days,” Andrei Ţarnea also stated, according to News.ro.
With reference to the activation of the European civil protection mechanism, Andrei Țărnea stated that 170 Romanian citizens benefited from evacuation flights through this mechanism, of which 127 arrived on Friday with a flight organized by Romania, nine citizens with a flight organized by Cyprus, 16 Romanian citizens from Jordan with a flight from the Czech Republic, two Romanian citizens from Oman were evacuated with a military flight organized by European cooperation, four Romanians with a military flight organized by Spain, and four Romanians from Jordan evacuated at the beginning of the crisis with a flight organized by the Czech Republic.
