Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman has extended the validity of all the visas that it had approved this year until December. Any additional fee won’t be charged for this. Meanwhile, new visas would be allowed from next month onwards when the travel ban is lifted. However, vaccination has been made mandatory to renew the visa. The applicants have to receive at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Indians who have received Covishield jab here would be allowed to fly to Oman. However, India’s indigenous vaccine Covaxin doesn’t have the approval yet. AstraZeneca (Covishield), Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Sputnik 5 are the vaccines that are approved by Oman.
Ticket fares in Saudi chartered flights skylight
Riyadh: Since the visa holders who had traveled to India and had been fully vaccinated in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to fly back to the Kingdom, the ticket fares for chartered flights from Kerala have skyrocketed. The fares start from Rs 40,000 onwards. However, passengers do not fret despite the soar in charges as it is considerably lesser than travelling via other countries (Rs 1.7 lakh). Various travel agencies said that flight services would resume in the Kochi – Jeddha and Kochi – Riyadh routes from 1 September.
The passengers are required to present the documents of residency permit, re entry visa, passport, identity card and copies of vaccination certificate and a negative RTPCR test report done 72 hours prior to travel. Flights have been chartered to Riyadh on 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 15 September while fights are available to Jeddah on 7 and 14. Meanwhile, the ticket fares from Saudi to Kerala too have gone up as more people, who have been fully vaccinated there, are booking tickets to come home.
