From July 12, UAE nationals and those who have approval from the UAE Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) will be allowed to fly back from India.

This follows the two governments allowing UAE air carriers to operate charter flights to fly back those passengers who have prior UAE Federal ICA or permission to live there from India. Currently, the UAE charter flights being operated to various Indian cities are only allowed to bring Indians back home. They are not allowed to carry passengers back to the UAE. India has banned commercial international flights till July 31.

The move is likely to benefit UAE’s four carriers — Emirates, flydubai, Air Arabia and Etihad.

The latest concession to flying to the UAE means that people from various cities in India will also be able to go to Dubai (headquarters of Emirates and flydubai), Sharjah (headquarters of Air Arabia) and Abu Dhabi (headquarters of Etihad).

No connecting journeys

The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s tweet announcing the decision added: “On the India to UAE journeys, all these flights will carry only those passengers who are destined for the UAE.” Hence, passengers from India trying to board these flights to connect to other parts of the world will not be allowed to do so.

For example, Emirates announced on Thursday that it will resume flights to Geneva (July 15), Los Angeles (July 22) and Boston from August 15. The statement added that by mid-August, the airline’s network will cover 58 cities including 20 points in Europe and 24 points in the Asia Pacific.

Official sources indicated that all airlines from the UAE will be allowed to operate to the points of call that they were operating to in India before the lockdown in March this year.

In addition, Indian carriers operating repatriation flights to bring Indian citizens from the UAE to India will be allowed to carry ICA-approved UAE residents, the Ministry said in the tweet.

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