The government has chartered a plane to bring home 180 of the most vulnerable Swedes stranded in Dubai, Sweden's Foreign Affairs Minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard (M), told Swedish newswire service TT.
Around 4,300 Swedes are in the United Arab Emirates, half of whom are considered stranded travellers.
The chartered aircraft is expected to depart from Dubai on Saturday evening and land in Sweden on Sunday.
"Now the airspace is partially opening up and a few more planes can fly. This creates an opportunity for us to fly 180 Swedes home with one plane," Stenergard said.
She emphasises that there are uncertainties which may affect whether the plane can land and then take off from Dubai.
The Swedes who are allowed to fly home on this planned flight are those who are considered vulnerable travellers – for example, those with medical needs – and families with children under five years of age, as identified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"We have identified approximately 300 families to whom this applies," said Stenergard. "We will start contacting those who are relevant for this departure."
According to Stenergard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is striving for cost price, which is about 12,000 kronor for an adult, 9,000 for children, and free for children under two years of age.
She has not ruled out more chartered flights.
"We still hope that more commercial flights will now be able to operate and that it will be easier for more people to get home," she said.
The airline Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, announced via X that it would resume regular flights on Friday, on a limited basis, to and from around 70 destinations, including Copenhagen. Emirates, based in Dubai, made a similar announcement on Thursday and mentioned 82 destinations, but none in the Nordic countries. Qatar's airspace remains closed.
Travel companies say it is difficult to arrange seats on existing flights.
"There are still so few flights being operated. When seats are added to the systems, they disappear in principle within a minute. It is important to really monitor to the minute," says Martina Krantz from Apollo, a Swedish travel agency.
On Friday morning, March 6th, Apollo still had 140 passengers left in the United Arab Emirates, while travel agency Ving had 54 travellers in Dubai and Qatar and nearly 200 stranded in other destinations as a result of the outbreak of conflict in the Gulf.
"Things are still uncertain. No one knows – not us, those on site, nor anyone else – how long this will take, says Anna Hagberg at Ving.
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