Air India Express flights to Dubai airports have been temporarily suspended for 15 days, starting from September 18 until October 3, for allegedly ferrying coronavirus positive patients to Dubai twice during the last couple of weeks.
Air India Express has also been penalised to bear all medical and quarantine expenditures of the coronavirus patients who had been ferried to Dubai.Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has stopped Air India Express from flying to Dubai for 15 days, starting today, alleging that two coronavirus positive passengers flew on board the flights to Dubai on two separate occasions despite having Covid-19 positive test reports.As per the UAE government rules, each passenger travelling from India needs to bring original coronavirus-negative certificate from RT-PCR test done 96 hours prior to the journey."You are aware of our previous intimation made to you by our letter dated September 2 for boarding a passenger with a coronavirus positive test result, who endangered the other passengers on board and also caused a serious health risk," the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority said.It further added that boarding a coronavirus patient was in violation of the laid down procedures relating to the air travel to and from Dubai airports during the coronavirus pandemic."Therefore, all operation of Air India Express to Dubai Airports is temporarily suspended, for a duration of 15 days, effective from 00:01 hrs on Friday 18th September 2020 until 23:59 hrs of 2nd October 2020," it said."In addition to the suspension of operation, you will be further notified to pay all the expenditure incurred by the respective authorities for medical services and/or quarantine of any passenger(s) and the other passengers in the flight and also any other expenditure connected thereto."For the resumption of the Air India Express flights to Dubai, Air India has been requested to submit a detailed corrective action or procedure implemented to prevent such incidents from occurring again.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.