Abu Dhabi has announced the resumption of public transport services as the emirate looks to rebound from restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) of the Department of Municipalities and Transport in Abu Dhabi said that intercity public bus services have restarted operations on Thursday.
Intercity public bus services in the emirate will be resumed according to a modified schedule, a statement said.
It added that services that will be resumed are the X90 between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain Cities, and services: X60, X62, X86, X87 and X88 between Al Dhafra Region and Abu Dhabi City.
These services will be resumed as two trips at least in each direction, 25 percent of the previous intercity services of Al Dhafra Region and 50 percent of the previous intercity services in Al Ain City because of the high demand.
The ITC said this is part of the first phase of gradually resuming all public bus services back to their normal schedules before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Whereas the public demand will be monitored in order to increase public bus services accordingly in the future with ensuring the compliance with the preventive measures to preserve the safety of public transport users,” it said.
ITC said it regularly sterilises public buses and has reduced bus capacity to 50 percent to apply physical distancing while drivers and passengers are obliged to wear face masks.
The resumption comes as a senior tourism executive in Abu Dhabi said domestic tourism will continue to play an integral part in the recovery of the industry, despite the re-opening of the emirate to international travellers.
Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, executive director of tourism and marketing at DCT Abu Dhabi, predicted a return to some semblance of normality in 12 months’ time.
Al Shaiba told Arabian Business: “Due to the new series of lockdowns at various destinations around the world, we can predict low volumes of international travel within the first few months of the year. During this period, domestic tourism will continue to play a key role in driving the tourism industry forward.
“As restrictions begin to ease, we can predict that travel will begin to pick up within the second half of the year, and that tourism will start to somewhat normalise as we head into 2022.”
Neighbouring emirate Dubai opened its doors to international travellers back in July, but Abu Dhabi remained cautious in its approach, closely monitoring the situation until relaxing rules last week.
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