Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday suspended air travel to and from India, Brazil and Argentina, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), people with travel history to any of the mentioned countries 14 days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom, have also been barred.
“Suspending travel to and from the following countries (India, Brazil, and Argentina) including any person who has been in any of the mentioned countries in the last (14) days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom,” General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
However, those who have official government invitations are excluded. According to the Johns Hopkins Unversity, there are 330,798 COVID-19 cases in the country.
Day After Dubai Ban, Air India Express Flights Resumed From Today
Earlier, Air India Express confirmed on Friday evening that all flights from/to Dubai will operate from September 19 (today) onwards as per the original schedule.
“All Air India Express flights from/to Dubai will operate as per original schedule w.e.f tomorrow,” the carrier said, in a tweet.
It is worth mentioning here that the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had suspended the flights till October 2 for transporting coronavirus-infected passengers twice in the past few weeks.
Earlier on Friday morning, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority temporarily suspended Air India Express flights scheduled to resume from September 13 for another 15 days.
The Dubai CAA revoked its suspension order against Air India Express flights on Friday evening. The authority had suspended Air India Express flights till October 2 for transporting coronavirus-infected passengers twice in the past few weeks. The carrier is a subsidiary of government-owned Air India.
“We have apologised for the two lapses to Dubai authorities and assured them of putting in place multilevel strict checks to ensure the same does not get repeated,” a spokesperson for the airline said. “All AI Express flights from and to Dubai will operate as per original schedule from Saturday.”
The UAE government had specified earlier this year that any passenger travelling to emirates will have to carry a Covid-negative certificate dated 96 hours prior to the journey.
In fact, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority had also written to Air India Express notifying the body that it will have to incur the cost of medical services or quarantine of any such passengers who test positive for the virus upon arrival in the UAE.
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