Kenya has suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) for seven days in a move to strike back a move by Dubai to ban all passenger flights from Kenya.
“Inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE are suspended for a period of seven days. We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to UAE,” Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) Director-General Gilbert Kibe.
The suspension took effect on Monday midnight and is set to continue for the next week. However, the ban does not include cargo flights that are normally flown from the Arab country Kenya.
This comes just a few days after UAE extended the ban on all flights from Kenya after it established that travellers from Nairobi were testing positive for Covid-19 after arrival in the Middle East nation, despite carrying negative test results.
KCAA director-general Gilbert Kibe said the scheme involved a racket of private medical testing centres that colluded with travellers to issue fake Covid-19 PCR results to aid their travel to Dubai.
The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) announced a 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya to the Middle East nation on December 20, 2021. In turn, the Emirates Airline extended its flights suspension from Kenya on 29 December to comply with the directives
The extension of the suspension of all inbound and transit passenger flights from Kenya came barely a few days after Kenya Airways (KQ) suspended passenger flights to Dubai following the flights’ ban by the Middle East country amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Kenya.
The national carrier said it would refund passengers who had booked tickets for travel within the suspension period. The travellers will also be allowed to rebook when flights resume.
