Tuesday at midnight the first passengers from Muscat in Oman returned to Bratislava. The Bratislava MR Štefánika Airport (BTS) reported about it on the social network. “The charter flight of the carrier Smartwings, ordered by the travel agency Satur, was originally supposed to land at the airport already on Saturday 28 February, but the flight could not be arranged due to the conflict in the Middle East.” zoomed in on the airport.
The portal pointed out that among the vacationers was Smer MP Ľubomír Vážny. After arriving at the Bratislava airport, the politician assessed that he had a good experience with the travel agency that brought them back home. Although he did not feel threatened in an exotic country, he sensed a certain uncertainty.
The article caught the eye of music producer and screenwriter Jaro Slávik (51), who has been living in Dubai for years. „Seriously, seriously? Mothers with children…” he wrote, alluding to the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Juraj Blanár (Smer-SD).
He announced at the press conference on Monday, that the department registers approximately 5,000 Slovak citizens located in the Middle East who have registered on the website in connection with a request for assistance. According to him, all of them are interested in returning to Slovakia. He explained that it is currently not possible to transport everyone due to capacity reasons, and repatriation flights will primarily focus on mothers with children or sick people. He asked other citizens to be patient.
The journalist also shared the video with MP Vážny, supplemented by Blanár’s statement, on his profile Rastislav Iliev. “Just to be clear. This is not a repatriation flight provided by the government. They are still waiting for the travel agencies to take it up as soon as possible. In such a situation, however, I would expect them to coordinate when transporting and prioritizing people,” he said on Tuesday morning.
Repatriation flight from the Middle East
The first two state repatriation flights from the Middle East landed at the Bratislava International Airport early Tuesday evening. More than 100 Slovak citizens and three Czechs were transported on board. A Spartan military plane and a government Airbus transported people from Jordan. The Minister of the Interior, Matúš Šutaj Eštok, announced that the ministries had prepared additional repatriation flights.
“To date, a total of ten repatriation flights have been approved. Six of them are in charge of the squadron of the Ministry of the Interior. The other four are in charge of the Ministry of Defense,” said the minister. As he added, the department is ready to increase their number even more.
The United States and Israel launched coordinated air and missile strikes on Iranian military and strategic targets on Saturday, February 28. In retaliation, Iran attacked American military facilities in several countries in the Middle East. In this context, air traffic in the region was significantly restricted or stopped.
