United Arab Emirate (UAE) has lifted the temporary suspension of all flights from Uganda to Dubai, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) Spokesman , Vianney Luggya has stated .
In a tweet this afternoon Luggya stated ,” This is to confirm that the suspension of flights from Uganda to Dubai has been lifted with immediate effect. Passengers planning travel to Dubai can now get in touch with their respective airlines to schedule their flights. “
International travel was parayalsyed when hundreds of Ugandans were left stranded after UAE suspended all flights due to the outbreak of a new – Omicron Covid -19 variant .
UAE has also since published a statement thus ;“We’ve resumed our flights to Dubai and taking all measures necessary to make sure you’re protected when you travel with us. Effective from 10 January 2022 flights from Entebbe in Uganda will resume,” the statement reads in part.
The national carrier ,Uganda Airlines will also resume operations starting Saturday, January 8, 2022.
The new measures put in place to stem the spread of covid -19 include -the requirement that all passengers travelling to or through Dubai from Uganda must present a printed copy of a valid negative COVID-19 PCR test result (displaying a QR code) from a test taken at an approved health service no more than 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure of their inbound flight to Dubai.
Passengers will also be required to take a rapid PCR test (based on molecular diagnostic testing intended for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid for SARS-COV-2 viral RNA) at Entebbe airport (“Test & Fly Lab” only) no more than 6 hours before the departure time of the flight (the test report must display a QR code).
UAE announced that that passengers from Uganda should also undergo a PCR test on arrival in Dubai and self-quarantine until a negative test result is received.
But UAE citizens are not affected by these stringent costly measures .
Although Ugandans have been allowed to fly to UAE again ,several other African countries are still blocked and these include neigbours Rwanda, Kenya , Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria , South Sudan and Angola among others .
