Tribune News NetworkDohaExisting quarantine bookings of all people returning to Qatar, regardless of the country of origin, from April 29 will be cancelled, Qatar Airways announced on Wednesday afternoon.“Anyone holding a booking will need to rebook,” it said, adding that all cancelled bookings will be fully refunded and passengers notified with details on how to rebook.Travellers arriving on April 28 should travel as planned and bookings for Mekaines have not been affected.The decision comes after Qatar imposed new entry requirements for passengers arriving from six high-risk countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.With travellers from these countries needing to enter extended periods of mandatory quarantine of 10 days, Qatar Airways said Discover Qatar — its destination management division and the facilitator of quarantine bookings — had to cancel all existing hotel bookings from April 29.“With 80% of our bookings belonging to those travelling from the high-risk countries, we have had to dedicate 43 of the 65 participating hotels to travellers returning from these countries. Unfortunately, due to this change and because we had to update the system to support 10-night quarantine packages, all bookings belonging to those travelling from other countries have also been impacted,” Discover Qatar said in statement.Qatar Airways added: ”Unfortunately, due to the additional demand for quarantine accommodation, it may not be possible for customers to rebook the same accommodation previously selected, as many hotels will be allocated to travellers arriving from the specific six countries.“Due to the short timescales of the restrictions and the numbers of bookings affected, it is not possible to contact everyone individually to make alternative arrangements and customers can make their new arrangements online. Before Qatar Airways released the statement, information provided by Discover Qatar on its website said quarantine bookings of only the passengers arriving from the six high-risk countries would be cancelled. Qatar Tribune had reported on it.Qatar’s Minister of Public Health on Monday announced a set of entry regulations for travellers arriving after Wednesday midnight on flights originating from or transiting via the six countries.According to the new regulations, such passengers will have to undergo hotel quarantine upon arrival in Qatar. The quarantine period will be 10 days in hotels or 14 days in Meknes hostels — instead of the seven-day period for fliers from other red list countries. No exception will apply to travellers from these six countries even if they are fully vaccinated, the ministry added.All passengers coming from the six countries are required to undergo a mandatory COVID-19 PCR test at approved testing centres 48 hours before departure. Passengers will not be allowed to board the flight to Qatar without a valid negative PCR certificate, the ministry added.
Qatar Airways statement
Discover Qatar statement: