Originally Posted by
helvetic
Getting from Saudi Arabia to Qatar is already tricky under normal circumstances given the blockade, I imagine it might be even trickier now.
Yes, hence the routing mentioned by [MENTION=365063]ps107[/MENTION] of RUH-KWI-DOH.
Originally Posted by
ps107
I was surprised they didn't work out something via Dubai. Kuwait and Doha seemed a bit odd.
The direct Qatar flight appears to be ending on 16 April. The SafeTravel email doesn't give a date for the proposed flights but suggests on the proposed day I would need to go via Australia. If that's the case, I'm hoping it'll be sometime after the 16th as that should give me time to finish most of what I need to do here.
Another contingency plan I was thinking about was assuming Saudi to London commercial flights resume and UK keeps their border open, that could be an option to at least get out of Saudi on the assumption that a UK to NZ link will be a priority to get back up and running if returning via Dubai and/or Asia isn't an option.
UK government is trying to organise military repatriation flights from NZ to UK for its citizens. I don't know when these will take place and whether NZers can fly on these in the other direction. Air NZ has stopped their LHR flights forever.
The issue in travel between Europe and NZ is the very limited transit options still available. Apart from DOH, the other routes seem to only be government arranged exceptions for repatriation flights. To date the NZ government has said they won't be doing repatriation flights, although just in the last day or so announced they will have one from Peru due to the conditions there.
At some point things should improve, opening up more options. But it is a punt as to whether it is in 1, 2, 3, or more months.