Dubai suspends Air India Express flights till October 2 for flying COVID-19 patients

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New Delhi: The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has suspended Air India Express flights till October 2 for allegedly bringing passengers with COVID-positive certificates twice during the last couple of weeks, senior government officials said on Friday.

As per the UAE government rules, each passenger travelling from India need to bring original COVID-negative certificate from RT-PCR test done 96 hours prior to the journey.

"A passenger, who had a COVID-positive certificate dated September 2, travelled 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," said one of the officials.

Therefore, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has suspended Air India Express flights from September 18 to October 2, the officials stated.

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, the officials noted.

When asked about this matter, 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.