Qatar Airways suspends bookings to Saudi Arabia for travelers from 20 countries

Feb 4, 2021

In line with recent travel restrictions, Qatar Airways (QA) has announced that it will temporarily suspend bookings to Saudi Arabia for travelers from 20 countries.

This follows Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to bar the entry of travelers arriving from several countries including UAE, Germany, US, Britain, South Africa, France Egypt, Lebanon, India and Pakistan, among others, to curb the spread of COVID-19.

However, the kingdom had said that there is an exception for diplomats, Saudi citizens, medical practitioners, and their families.

In a post on its Twitter page, Qatar’s national carrier said it “can’t accept bookings for passengers from 20 countries, exceptions are for Saudi citizens, diplomats and medical staff. Visit qatarairways.com to change/cancel/refund tickets.”

For passenger departing KSA, #QatarAirways operates daily flights from Riyadh, 4 weekly flights from Jeddah and daily flights from Dammam to our award-winning hub @HIAQatar. Passengers in KSA will have the ability to connect to more than 120 destinations worldwide. pic.twitter.com/iWzD6PdwwL
— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) February 3, 2021

The Saudi decision adds to similar decisions made by other countries in the region, including Kuwait which announced yesterday that it will suspend entry for non-citizens for two weeks, starting February 7, 2021.

Oman had also closed its land borders, which will remain in effect until February 8, 2021.

There have been no changes to Qatar entry restrictions as per the Qatari government rules and regulations, QA specified in another tweet.

"Any news declaring that only Qatari nationals are allowed entry to Qatar are untrue and residents are encouraged to check the validity of all information through the correct sources," the airline had specified.