Daijiworld Media Network – Dubai

Dubai, Jun 26: The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has announced the suspension of flight services to and from India until further notice.

The international flight suspension includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India.

The UAE nationals and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen’s planes and golden residence holders are excluded from the travel ban provided that they should take preventive measures that include a mandatory 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport, as per GCAA’s directions.

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It may be recalled here, Air India had resumed commercial passenger flights from UAE to India on June 24. Flights started a day after the Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management of Dubai had allowed travellers from India to the UAE under certain conditions. The UAE had suspended incoming flights from India on April 24 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

In an order passed on June 19, the Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management of Dubai had allowed the resumption of all passenger flights from three nations namely Nigeria, South Africa and India, from June 23 onwards. However, there were some conditions attached for passengers from India.

Travellers from India would be required to carry a valid residence visa and should have received two doses of a UAE-approved vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccines that UAE has approved are - Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

Travellers would also need a negative PCR test report to confirm that they do not have COVID-19. The PCR test should have been taken less than 48 hours before departure. They would also need to take a rapid test four hours before the flight and then take another PCR test once they arrive in UAE. Passengers will remain in institutional quarantine until the results of the second PCR test are issued.