Air India Express to operate Dubai flights from Saturday as per schedule after one-day suspension

All Air India Express flights to and from Dubai will resume its operation from Saturday. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Air India Express said that all its flights "from/to Dubai will operate as per original schedule". Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India.

Earlier, Air India Express had said its flights were suspended for 24 hours on Friday by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) for bringing two passengers with COVID-positive certificates on August 28 and September 4.

"Attention Passengers from/to Dubai! All Air India Express flights from/to Dubai will operate as per original schedule w.e.f tomorrow, September 19, 2020," it tweeted on September 18.

Attention Passengers from/to Dubai!

All Air India Express flights from/to Dubai will operate as per original schedule w.e.f tomorrow, September 19,2020.@HardeepSPuri @MoCA_GoI @cgidubai pic.twitter.com/mFrvJHzv1w

— Air India Express (@FlyWithIX) September 18, 2020

As per the UAE government rules, each passenger travelling from India is required to bring an original COVID-negative certificate from the RT-PCR test done 96 hours prior to the journey. Earlier during the day, Air India Express said it had received a "notice of suspension" from the DCAA on September 17 to suspend its Dubai flights from September 18 to October 2 for carrying two passengers, who had COVID-positive certificates with them, on different flights, reported news agency PTI.

"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," a government official told PTI. In August, Air India passenger flights were barred from landing in Hong Kong between August 18 and August 31 after 14 passengers on its Delhi-Hong Kong flight of August 14 tested positive for COVID-19 post arrival.

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Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. However, special international passenger flights have been operating in India under the Vande Bharat Mission since May and under bilateral air bubble arrangements formed between India and other countries since July.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the 10 countries with which India has established a bilateral air bubble pact. In such a pact, airlines of both the countries can operate international passenger flights with certain restrictions.