UAE suspends Ethiopian Airlines over travellers from Uganda

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has barred Ethiopian Airlines from operating flights in its country over COVID-19 restrictions imposed on travelers from Uganda.

Ethiopian Airlines operates Entebbe-Dubai flights via Addis Ababa. However, this arrangement is being tested by the latest UAE restrictions because direct flights to Dubai last an average of 5 and half hours.

UAE requires passengers from Uganda to present negative COVID-19 certificates issued 48 hours and 6 hours to departing time.

The 6-hour test must however be undertaken by one of the laboratories testing for COVID-19 at Peniel Beach, the centre set up for testing passengers at Entebbe International airport.

Sources at the airport say Ethiopian Airlines carried nine passengers from Entebbe whose six-hour test result certificates had expired by the time they landed in Dubai on Monday, September 13. As a result, UAE directed Ethiopian Airlines to return the affected passengers to Entebbe.

“Next day, the UAE authorities told Ethiopian Airlines to stop flying passengers from Uganda after failing to comply with the new measures.

Meseret Tstgay, the country manager of Ethiopian Airlines has however denied that such a thing happened. She however confirms that UAE has stopped Ethiopian Airlines from flying to Dubai.

Tstgay says the airline has submitted an application for approval to the Civil Aviation Authority of UAE to resume flights.

Tstgay explains that while the airline was cleared to resume flights from Entebbe on September 9, UAE slapped the airline with a travel ban mid-week.

“We received the communication from UAE at midday and yet 15 passengers going to Dubai had already boarded our 2:45 pm flight for that day,” Tstgay explains, “So we engaged Emirates and they flew our passengers to Dubai on the same day.”

Tstgay says the airline advises passengers who had pre-booked flights to reschedule them because Ethiopian Airlines was still having talks with UAE authorities over the travel requirements.

A salesman at Kenya Airways says all UAE-bound passengers are undertaking the second test at Nairobi at a cost of $60.

In the last two weeks, airlines have raised concerns about laboratories issuing 48-hour certificates to passengers without testing them while passengers are irked by the long waiting hours at Peniel Beach.

A hundred passengers missed Emirates flight number EK730 on September 14 because of a delay in the release of the 6-hour covid-19 results. The affected passengers were tested by Safari Lab.

Dr James Eyul, in charge of port health at Entebbe airport on behalf of the ministry of Health, says Safari Lab told the team that it tested 96 passengers.

The laboratory said the delay in releasing the results was “due to the introduction of new results reporting tool that generates a report which captures the time of results release,” says Dr Eyul.

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