First out of ten repatriation flights from Morocco lands at Schiphol

The first repatriation flight with travelers stranded in Morocco from the airline Transavia landed at Schiphol on Saturday at 1:30 a.m. Around 100 duped travelers were on the plane, according to a spokesperson.

Morocco banned all flights to and from the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom as of Thursday.

Moroccan authorities were concerned that the rising number of infections in these countries will spread to Morocco. Transavia received permission from Morocco on Friday to carry out ten repatriation flights. Nine additional flights to the Netherlands were scheduled between Saturday and October 29.

In the past week, approximately 3,500 people traveled to Morocco with Transavia. There has been uncertainty about the next steps for Dutch travelers since the announcement of the flight ban. Transavia, for example, waited for days for permission to pick up stranded passengers.

Transavia recently warned that ten flights are probably not enough to bring back everyone who wants to return to the Netherlands. On Friday evening, a flight from Morocco also landed in Brussels with 78 Dutch people on board.

They are brought to the Netherlands by bus from the Belgian capital. The repatriated people had gone to Morocco through the travel agency TUI.