Kenya has suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) to retaliate against Dubai’s move to ban all passenger flights from Kenya over fake Covid-19 tests.
In a statement, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the suspension took effect Monday midnight for a period of seven days.
The ban does not, however, affect cargo flights that are normally flown by carriers such as Kenya Airways and Emirates airline from UEA into 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," Director-General Gilbert Kibe said.
The ban comes barely two weeks after UAE extended Kenya flight ban after it established that travelers from Nairobi were testing positive for Covid-19 after arrival in the Middle East nation, despite carrying negative test results.
On December 20, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) announced a 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya after several passengers arriving from Nairobi tested positive for Covid-19.
However, the Arab League nation extended the ban that was to end on Christmas eve
“Until further notice, flights to and from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda are suspended,” DCAA said.
It asked passengers who have been in or transited through these countries in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit through Dubai,” said the notice from the airline.
“They banned flights from Kenya due to many false negative Covid-19 PCR results. The Ministry of Health is investigating and will report findings soon,” KCAA said.
The aviation tiff between the two is likely to hurt Kenya’s growing labour export to the UAE, considering that majority were yet to travel back after Christmas festivities.Government data shows that there are at least 40,000 Kenyans working in UAE, with the figure rising by the day.Even so, this is not the first time Kenya and UAE are embroiled in an aviation war.In March, Kenya blocked UAE’s push to have more flight frequencies by the Emirates Airline.This, despite Dubai writing to Nairobi not to fly any carrier with more than 220 passengers into its territory yet Emirates is using aircraft of more than 400 seat capacity into Nairobi.This angered Kenya, with the Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia calling out the Arab nation for unfair air transport trade.According to him, Emirates was seeking an additional daily flight to Nairobi yet it does 14 weekly flights.“When […]
