The Minister of Transport, Abd al-Wahhab Yahya al-Durra, said on Thursday that the flights from Sana'a Airport to Cairo and India were approved, scheduled, and canceled at the last minute, with the complicity of the Yemeni Airways leadership, which is the national carrier of the Republic of Yemen.
The Minister of Transport told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba): "Yemeni Airlines is supposed to provide services to all Yemeni people without discrimination and from all airports of the Republic of Yemen, and every citizen has the right to travel from the nearest airport to his residence and city."
He added, "It is illogical for Yemenia to operate nine international destinations, on a regular and daily basis from some Yemeni airports, in exchange for one destination for Jordan, for only three flights per week via Sana'a Airport, which leads to great pressure on travel reservations and great suffering for travelers in general and patients in particular, and the accumulation of passengers at the Amman airport."
He stressed the need for Yemeni Airways, as the national carrier, to operate with complete professionalism and impartiality, and to operate civil flights from Sana'a International Airport, similar to other local airports.
He called on Al-Yemenia for clarifications to the public opinion about the reasons for not operating the destinations of India and Cairo, despite their schedule.
He said, "Patience will run out, and the warnings of the revolutionary leadership and the Supreme Political Council are serious and clear to the Saudi-Emirati coalition of aggression in the event that work is not done in implementing the humanitarian file and stopping its manipulation, since its implementation is one of the top priorities that serve the Yemeni people and alleviate their suffering, including lifting the siege on the Sana'a International Airport. "
Al-Durra added, "We in the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority have made every effort to fill the pretexts that the aggression coalition and its mercenaries fabricate in order to operate flights from Sana'a airport towards Cairo and India."
And the Minister of Transport continued: "But to no avail, because the aggression coalition and the mercenaries inside continue to procrastinate and make flimsy excuses, so the scheduling of flights to Cairo and India was suspended at the last moments without any justification."
Minister Al-Durra renewed holding the aggression coalition fully responsible for the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, especially the patients who are stranded and awaiting the opening of all destinations and airports.
He said : "The truce and calm are useless unless there is a complete opening of all land, air and sea outlets, as they are of a civil and humanitarian nature."
The Minister of Transport stated that the number of civil flights that were carried out by Yemeni Airlines between Sana’a and Queen Alia Airports of Jordan, since the start of the armistice on April 2, 2022 until March 8, 2023, amounted to 119 civil flights, during which approximately 60,000 passengers (arriving and departing) were transported, in addition to one trip to Cairo on June 1, 2022 AD.
He pointed out that 6,000 passengers were leaving through Sana'a International Airport before the aggression per day, meaning that in ten days nearly 60,000 passengers were leaving to and from Sana'a airport, stressing that the armistice did not alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni citizen.
The Minister of Transport said: "The benefit of this truce is that we have proven to the world and the international community the ability of the Yemeni engineering and technical cadres to rehabilitate Sana'a International Airport to receive all commercial flights... Work is underway, God willing, to rehabilitate the rest of the airports."
Source: Yemen News Agency