Source::AP news
Travel at this World Cup was supposed to be easy in the tiny host nation of Qatar after fans had to take long flights between cities at the last three tournaments.
The eight stadiums in Qatar are in or near the capital, so fans don’t have to go too far to get to matches in theory. The country billed its World Cup as environmentally sustainable in part because of how compact it is, but the reality is quite different.
Tens of thousands of foreign fans are turning to shuttle flights between Doha and neighboring Dubai for a number of reasons high hotel prices, a scarcity of accommodation, and alcohol limits. It might sound extreme, expensive, and environmentally questionable, but the daily flights have become a popular choice as fans opt to sleep somewhere other than Qatar.
Dubai, the freewheeling commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates, is the region’s top destination outside Doha. State airlines like FlyDubai, the emirate’s budget carrier, are marshaling resources, operating 10 times the number of usual flights to Doha.
Neighboring Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia also have organized air shuttles to cash in on the World Cup tourism boom. Every few minutes, a Boeing or Airbus rumbles overhead Doha’s old airport. The concept of air shuttles isn’t new to the Gulf, where many who live and work in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia or dry Kuwait hop over to Dubai for the weekend to drink freely and have fun in the glittering metropolis.
Unlike fans who had to take long-distance flights at the World Cups in South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014), and Russia (2018), the Dubai-Doha route is shorter in most cases. But short flights, often defined as trips shorter than 500 kilometers (311 miles), are more polluting than long ones per person for every kilometer traveled because of how much fuel is used for takeoff and landing.
Other fans on shuttle flights were turned off by Qatar’s alcohol restrictions. The city’s few hotels are almost the only places allowed to serve alcohol, after a last-month ban on beer in stadiums. Doha’s sole liquor store is open only to Qatari residents with an official permit.
Many fans described the shuttles as a fairly seamless process arriving at the Dubai airport less than an hour before takeoff, zipping through lines without luggage, and flying for about 50 minutes before landing in Doha just in time for their game.
The airport on Thursday was teeming with fans from Saudi Arabia, whose citizens have bought more World Cup tickets than any other nationality after Qatar and the United States. The Saudi team’s shock victory over Argentina this week stoked even more excitement.
Riyadh, an aspiring tourism destination, has sought to benefit from the regional boost, offering those with Hayya cards two-month visas to the Kingdom. Saudi student Nawaf Mohammed said World Cup fever in Riyadh is palpable, with more Westerners visible in the capital’s airport and carnivals.
“We wanted to stay for five days in Doha. But it was too expensive. We didn’t want those weird fan zones. In Dubai, we found a fancy hotel for not too much money. The flights are so crowded so we’re not the only ones,” said Ana Santos, a Brazilian fan arriving at Doha’s airport on Thursday with her husband.
“These are long days. It’s exhausting. The problem is you have to arrive in Qatar a good while before the match and you have to allow even more time to go through the airport,” said Steven Carroll, a lab technician from Wales, whose flight back to Dubai was delayed an hour, returning him to his Dubai hotel worn-out at 4.a.m after a 24-hour day._APnews
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