The UAE’s resolution to ban flights from India because of the worsening COVID-19 scenario within the nation has upset a whole lot of journey plans as persons are making frantic efforts to achieve to their locations earlier than the restrictions come into impact.
The UAE has banned journey from India for 10 days from Sunday. The ban will come into impact from 11.59 pm on Saturday, April 24, and is topic to evaluate after 10 days, the Gulf News reported.
Passengers who’ve transited by India within the final 14 days may also not be permitted to board from another level to the UAE, the report mentioned.
However, departure flights will proceed to function and the ban won’t prolong to UAE residents, diplomatic passport holders and official delegations, it mentioned.
Hajra Memon (title modified on request) was scheduled to journey to Dubai from Kolkata on Flydubai (FZ 4016) on Saturday, April 24, which was scheduled to take off at 2 am. As quickly because the announcement got here, she made frantic calls to seek out out whether or not she will be able to nonetheless fly on that schedule.
“I just wanted to make sure whether I will be allowed to board on my existing ticket as April 24 should mean the midnight separating Friday and Saturday. When all my calls went unanswered, I had to take a quick call and make a new booking for a Friday morning Emirates flight (EK571), which is scheduled to take off at 9.45 am,” she informed PTI.The Dubai-based banker mentioned she had no alternative however to pay extra cash and get a seat on this flight as she couldn’t afford to remain stranded in India for not less than 10 days. “If I was assured I can still on Saturday, I wouldn’t have spent the extra bucks,” Menon mentioned.
When requested how the ban is impacting journey plans, Nazir Khan of Dubai-based Zain travels mentioned flights are closed from the April 24 for 10 days. So, individuals who have a visa will both rush to journey on Friday or postpone their journey plan for 10 days, he mentioned.
Khan mentioned inflated airline tickets could be the prices concerned in most of those instances.
“People who have their visas issued but not in a hurry to visit the UAE can defer their plans, but all tickets beyond this date will now have to be rescheduled,” he mentioned, including that it’ll take a number of days to evaluate the losses individuals have incurred because of the ban.
However, there have additionally been those that had been fortunate to flee the journey ban. Delhi-based brothers, Naveen and Armaan, had been visiting Dubai and had been scheduled to depart on April 25, Sunday. But as their mom wasn’t feeling nicely again house, they flew a few days forward of the schedule.
“We really got lucky as getting stranded in Dubai for another 10 days would have been a really costly option for us,” Naveen mentioned.
The UAE imposed a journey ban on passengers from India after the nation recorded the world’s highest variety of 3,14,835 COVID-19 instances in sooner or later on Thursday.