Dubai suspends Air India Express services till Oct 2 for flying COVID-19 positive patients

Dubai: Dubai's Civil Aviation Authority has suspended Air India Express flights till October 2 for allegedly bringing passengers with COVID-19 positive certificates twice during the last couple of weeks, officials said.

It is pertinent to mention here that as per the UAE government rules, each passenger travelling from India needs to bring an original COVID-negative certificate from an RT-PCR test done 96 hours prior to embarking on the journey.

According to UAE officials, a passenger, who had a COVID-positive certificate dated September 2, traveled on Air India Express' Jaipur-Dubai flight on September 4. A similar incident had happened with a passenger on one of the airline's other Dubai flights previously.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has suspended Air India Express flights from September 18 to October 2, officials said.

Officials have further revealed to media that both the incidents of passengers flying with COVID-positive certificates to Dubai from India on Air India Express flights happened during the last couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Air India Express said it is focusing on reducing the hardship of the passengers and it plans to operate its four Dubai flights, scheduled to operate from India on Friday, to Sharjah instead.

According to worldometers data, the UAE has so far reported 82,568 coronavirus cases, and 402 fatalities. 72,117 patients in the country have already recovered from the infectious disease.

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