Sask. worker in Saudi Arabia says conflict in Middle East making travel more challenging

A Saskatchewan man working in Saudi Arabia says for him, the hardest part of the conflict in the region isn’t fear on the ground – it’s figuring out how to get home.

Douglas Tompson, a Saskatoon-based oilfield instructor who works rotational shifts in Saudi Arabia, said he still feels safe weeks after tensions between the United States, Israel and Iran boiled over into open conflict. But while his life has stayed largely normal, he said his trips back to Saskatchewan have become longer, more complicated and much more expensive.

Read more:

• Saskatoon teacher in Saudi Arabia feels ‘very safe’ despite feds urging Canadians to leave Middle East
• Trump issues new threat to Iran’s civilian infrastructure if a ceasefire isn’t reached ‘shortly’
• Israel hits Tehran with wave of strikes and warns attacks on Iran ‘will escalate and expand’

Routes have been “severely limited,” Tompson said, with fewer seats available. Meanwhile, he added, “the ticket prices have just skyrocketed.”

Tompson told 980 CJME earlier this month that he felt “very safe” in Saudi Arabia, despite federal warnings urging Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to the country due to renewed regional tensions, including the risk of falling military debris and airspace disruptions. At the time, Tompson said he had no interest in cutting short his rotation and planned to stay and continue his normal work schedule.

He said that hasn’t changed.

Tompson said the past few weeks have been “not really that exciting,” aside from finishing Ramadan and celebrating Eid. He said he continued to work as usual, with full Internet access and the ability to keep up with news from Saskatchewan and abroad.

“I wish I could make it sound more exciting than it is, but it really isn’t,” he said. “It’s pretty much uneventful.”

Tompson said he has about a week left in his current rotation and could still come home, but not by the route he normally takes. In the past, he said he typically travelled through Dubai and Toronto. This time, he explained, he was being rerouted through Europe before heading to Toronto and then home to Saskatoon.

The result is a much longer trip. He said what would usually be a journey of roughly 30-32 hours is now expected to take closer to 48-50 hours, with one layover stretching 15 or 16 hours.

“That’s a little bit frustrating,” he said.

Tompson said flights are still moving in and out of the region, but not nearly as frequently as before. He credited airlines, local authorities and the Canadian government for keeping travellers informed through alerts and advisories, saying official information had been much more useful than “doom and gloom on the Internet.”

“As much as I grumble about social media being not good for you, the Canadian government has done a good job of sending out alerts to people in the area,” he said. “The local government has done a good job and the airlines have done a good job.”

He also praised Air Canada for making broader, longer-term decisions on flight disruptions rather than issuing updates only a day or two at a time.

“At least you’re not on pins and needles,” he said.

Despite the travel headaches, Tompson said he is still looking forward to coming home to Saskatchewan, even if that means returning to a flat tire and sticker shock at the gas pumps. He joked that the price of fuel in his home province is one of the things he’s been watching closely from overseas.

And once his time at home is over, he said he fully expects to head right back.

“Absolutely,” he said when asked if he planned to return to Saudi Arabia on schedule. “My schedule is planned all the way up until Christmas.”

For Tompson, the regional tensions have changed his travel plans far more than his daily life.

“Everybody’s just waiting for it to be over,” he said. “I just come over here, I do my job.”

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Lara Fominoff