COVID-19: Nigerian passengers restricted to Dubai airport

By KAYODE OYERO

Dubai Airports, operators of Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, has released fresh travel conditions for Nigerian passengers.

The airport restricted Nigerian passengers from transiting through other airports.

The move comes as the United Kingdom on Friday suspended direct flights between the UAE and the UK as part of measures to curb the spread of the raging coronavirus disease.

Subsequently, in a statement sent to travel partners, Dubai Airports said amongst other things, passengers from Nigeria can no longer travel through other countries or airports to Dubai.

The notice was titled, ‘Dubai Travel Protocol Update –Travel From Nigeria’.

It read, “Kindly be advised that effective from 01 February 2021, the following conditions must be met for travel from Nigeria:

“All passengers are required to obtain negative COVID-19 certificate. The PCR should be conducted within 72 hours of the date of departure.

“All passengers are required to conduct a rapid COVID-19 test and obtain a negative result within four hours of their departure time.

“Passengers must travel directly from Nigeria to Dubai. No passenger may enter Dubai from any other country/station if they have visited or transited from Nigeria in the last 14 days.”

A travel expert, Ikechi Uko, said the implication of the measure is that other airlines won’t be able to commute Nigerian passengers aside Emirates Airlines which has its major hub at the Dubai International Airport.

Other airlines fly into Sharjah, UAE from Nigeria but none flies directly to Dubai.

The expert said, “UK banned them yesterday (Friday), so, they decided that instead of Emirates to collapse, let’s ban every other airline. You cannot fly through any other airport to Dubai.

“In most cases, there are no direct flights from Nigeria to Dubai, so that is their only way of eliminating every other airlines. They’ve eliminated Egyptair, Turkish Air, Qatar, Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, RwandAir, Air Peace, everybody wiped out.”

Uko also said the monopolistic development would increase the cost of travel.

“It is going to increase flight tickets because everybody is going to fly Emirates and they will increase their fares and bring in bigger planes to fly people,” he added. (Saturday PUNCH)