Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has suspended Air India Express operations to the Dubai airport after the airline allegedly carried a passenger who had tested positive for COVID-19.
The suspension kicks in from September 18 and will be valid till October 2.
The suspension notice says that the airline had carried the passenger on September 4, on flight IX1135, from Jaipur to Dubai. The passenger, whose identity is not revealing, had reportedly had a positive test result, issued on September 2 at a diagnostic center in Jaipur.
Going by the notice, this was the second time that the Dubai authority had detected the airline carrying a passenger who had the infection.
“You are aware of the previous intimation made to you by our letter dated September 2, for boarding a passenger with a COVID-19 positive result, who endangered the other passengers on board and also caused a serious health risk,” the letter to the regional manager of Air India Express said.
It added that boarding a passenger with the infection, for the second time, “is contrary to and is in violation of the laid down procedure…in the Emirate of Dubai, during the corona virus SARS Cov. 2 pandemic.”
In addition to the suspension, the airline has been asked to pay for all the expenditure incurred by authorities for medical services, including quarantine, for passengers.
To resume services, the Air India subsidiary has been asked to submit a “detailed corrective action/procedure implemented to prevent such incidents…” the letter said.
Dubai is among the busiest destinations for passengers from India. As per the air travel bubble that the Indian government had arranged with a few countries, airlines from both the sides could operate scheduled flights.
This is a second such instance of Air India or its subsidiary being suspended for carrying passengers infected with the virus. On August 18, Hong Kong had banned the national airline from operating till August 31.
Separately, Malaysia had barred Indians from entering the country starting September 7, in a bid to curtail imported COVID-19 cases amid a spate of new clusters in the country.
