Air India Express ops to Dubai to resume from Saturday

New Delhi: Air India Express operations to Dubai will be restored from September 19, the airline said late on Friday.

"All Air India Express flights from or to Dubai will operate as per original schedule w.e.f tomorrow, September 19, 2020," the airline said.

Earlier in the day, the airline said that its operations to Dubai have been temporarily suspended for 15 days starting Friday as it had received a "Notice of Suspension" from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday.

"The notice has been issued on account of erroneous acceptance of one Covid positive passenger each by the airline's ground handling agents at Delhi and Jaipur on Air India Express flights to Dubai on August 28 and September 4, respectively," the statement made earlier in the day said.

"As per information gathered, passengers who were seated in close proximity to the Covid positive passenger on each flight had undergone Covid test or quarantined as determined by the Dubai health authority."

On its part, the airline had disclosed that the ground handling agencies concerned have taken appropriate punitive action against their employees who have been held accountable for the lapses at Delhi and Jaipur.

"Prior to the receipt of the Notice, the airline had submitted a letter to the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority expressing the airline's profuse apologies and detailing the various actions taken by the airline in association with the concerned ground handling agents to guard against such lapse in the future."

In addition, the airline said that in order to mitigate the inconvenience that may be caused to passengers booked to fly to Dubai, it has introduced additional flights to Sharjah to accommodate the affected passengers.

"The affected passengers who have booked to fly to Dubai are also being given the option to rebook to a future date," the airline said in a statement.