Tunisia Calls For A Hike In The Number Of Flights With Algeria

The Tunisian Ambassador in Algeria, Ramadan Al-Fayed, described the communication between the two countries as important, significant and continuous, citing in his assessment the continuous contacts between the two countries’ presidents, Kais Saied and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and said that “the Tunisians and the Algerians are one people”.

The Tunisian diplomat revealed that he will have a meeting with the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the issue of hiking the number of flights, in addition to linking Algerian and Tunisian cities to irregular flights coinciding with the summer season notably via the Tunisian private company “Noval Air”.

“I will have a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss raising the number of flights,” he stated.

Currently, 14 flights are operated between Algeria and Tunisia per week, as Air Algerie operates 7 flights, while Tunisian Air operates 5 flights, and Tunisian Express operates one flight towards Constantine, and the Tunisian private company “Noval Air” operates one flight, and before the Corona pandemic, the number of weekly flights between the two capitals is 28, in addition to 4 flights between Oran and Tunis, and 3 flights from Constantine to Tunis.

Regarding the opening of the land borders, which were closed as a precautionary measure to confront the Corona virus pandemic, the Ambassador said, “In all honesty, I have no indication confirming the opening of the borders or its opposite, and any indication that public opinion will be informed of”.

The latter praised the level of bilateral relations between the two countries, especially on the popular side, and explained, “We in Tunisia treat the Algerian on the basis that he is Tunisian and we do not view him as a foreigner, and the mixing that occurs between the citizens of the two countries during the summer season is the best evidence”.

For his part, the representative of the Tunisian Tourism Office in Algeria, Fouad El-Wad, said, “The Algerian tourist is very important to Tunisia, and the year 2019, which was a reference for the income of 3 million Algerians to Tunisia, in return, 2 million Tunisians visited Algeria,” and continued, “30 percent of Algerians spend their nights in hotels, Approximately 82 percent enter Tunisia by land”.

He stressed that the first three months of the year 2020 were good indicators in the tourism field, as there was an increase of 7 percent in the number of Algerians who entered Tunisia compared to the previous year, noting that 30,000 Algerians entered Tunisia from January to 30 April.

During the meeting, the tourism agencies put forward a demand to scale up the number of flights, and to start operating charter flights, especially during the upcoming summer season.