India-UAE flights are suspended until further notice, says GCAA official

Dubai: UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on Thursday confirmed that inbound passenger traffic from India would remain suspended until further notice.

“As far as inbound passenger traffic from India is concerned, the status quo remains,” an official said. “We are closely monitoring the situation in India, and a decision on when to lift the suspension on inbound travellers will be taken keeping in mind the safety and security of all parties involved”

Starting from April 24, GCAA and the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) suspended all inbound flights for national and international carriers coming from India.

No updates have been issued since the last statement by GCAA and NCEMA, said the official.

The travel suspension includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India. The GCAA had previously stated that UAE nationals and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen's planes and golden residence holders are excluded from the decision, provided that they should take preventive measures that include a mandatory 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport as well as another test on the fourth and eighth days of entering the country.

Meanwhile, UAE and Indian airlines are looking to resume flights from July 6 onwards, as per booking sites and customer care representatives.

“Flights from India to the UAE are suspended until 6 July 2021 - this may be extended,” said Etihad on its website.

Air India tweeted the following on Wednesday in response to a customer query: “In view of travel restrictions announced by the UAE government, flights between India and UAE are suspended till 06th Jul'21. Please keep a watch on our Twitter handle and website for further updates”