The UAE will possibly get new quarantine-free travel corridors with the EU and the US, but is not likely to come off Britain’s red list when London reviews it on June 7, according to Dubai Airports chief Paul Griffiths.
Pointing out that with the UK recently recording a COvid-19 spike with 3,000 cases daily of the Indian variant and its situation not looking great, he reportedly said “We’re obviously anticipating something happening at some stage in the future, but I think for the time being that the corridor we’ve agreed with Italy is a very positive step.”
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While June 1 witnessed passengers travelling between UAE and Italy — as long as they are fully vaccinated or if they present a negative PCR test before boarding and take a rapid antigen swab test on landing, Griffiths predicted similar deals happening with other nations, media reports said.
He was quoted as saying that with further steps emerging with the EU as a whole and with the USA over the next few weeks, this would provide the UK government the courage and conviction to allow flights to restart between the UAE and the UK. “With the UK being an incredibly important market and London being the biggest air travel route between the UAE and the UK, we’re all very keen to get those discussions under way,” he said.
The Dubai Airport chief also disclosed that the UAE was moving forward with a vaccine passport system — which was probably the “long term solution to travel corridors opening up again” and also ensuring those inoculated with the approved vaccines for Europe to be allowed to enter EU countries. “I know there’s a similar system under way in the US. And those digital systems should enable people to travel without having any problems at the airport,” he said.
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While testing worked but required a great capacity for testing at the arrival airport, the vaccine passport system did not need a physical check and was therefore a more efficient way of travel, he added.
Dubai International Airport had recorded a 69 per cent slump in air traffic in 2020 following global aviation being grounded, but — with 26 million passengers – still remained the busiest airport in the world. (AW)
