Air India Express suspends Dubai operations temporarily

New Delhi: State-owned budget carrier, Air India Express said its operations to Dubai have been suspended temporarily for 15 days starting Friday.

According to the airline, the decision was based on a "Notice of Suspension" the carrier received from Dubai Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday.

"The notice has been issued on account of erroneous acceptance of one Covid positive passenger by the Airline's ground handling agents at Delhi and Jaipur on Air India Express flights to Dubai on 28th August and 4th September, respectively," the statement 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 disclosed that the concerned ground handling agencies have taken appropriate punitive action against their employees who have been held accountable for the lapse 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.

(With input from IANS)