Aircraft operated by Emirates, at Dubai International Airport within the United Arab Emirates.
Christopher Pike | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The chief govt of Dubai Airports has panned a call by authorities within the United Kingdom to maintain the UAE on its worldwide travel “red” record, as new information from the group exhibits passenger traffic by the airport fell 67.8% within the first quarter.
“I think the approach is wrong,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths advised Dubai Eye Radio on Thursday, expressing frustration on the rule which bans air travel or forces a pricey quarantine on arrival for hundreds of Brits within the Emirates who wish to go dwelling.
Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps indicated the UAE may keep on the pink record as a consequence of its standing as a global transit hub, regardless of falling circumstances and the world’s second-fastest vaccination price.
“I can’t be too honest with you about my thoughts about those comments,” Griffiths stated when requested to answer the transport secretary. “We’ve made very strong representations to the British government about the credibility of the numbers here and the way we’re handling everything,” he stated.
Griffiths known as for “a far more proactive relationship” to handle the confusion surrounding the ruling, as public frustration grows. The UAE stays on the U.Okay. pink record, regardless that Abu Dhabi has the U.Okay. by itself “green” record of travel international locations.
“There are countries on the (United Kingdom) green list that we believe haven’t taken anything like the care and the number of measures that we’ve put in place here in Dubai to keep everyone safe,” Griffiths stated. “It’s just not practical in terms of how we’re going to get back to life as we once knew it,” he added.
Spokespersons for the U.Okay.’s Foreign Office and Transport Ministry weren’t instantly obtainable for remark when contacted by CNBC. Last week, Shapps stated: “We’re not restricting the UAE due to the level of coronavirus in the UAE. The issue is one of transit.”
The U.Okay. Foreign Office presently “advises against all but essential travel to the whole of the United Arab Emirates based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.”
A well being employee checks a person’s temperature earlier than receiving a dose of vaccine towards the coronavirus at a vaccination middle arrange on the Dubai International Financial Center within the Gulf emirate of Dubai, on February 3, 2021. The United Arab Emirates has suffered a spike in circumstances after the vacation interval.
Photo by KARIM SAHIB | AFP through Getty Images
The UAE has administered greater than 9.9 million vaccine doses out of its inhabitants of roughly 10 million folks, solely behind Israel within the world vaccination race. Residents in Dubai can select from the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, U.Okay.-developed AstraZeneca, the American-German made Pfizer jab or Russia’s Sputnik V, whereas residents of Abu Dhabi may solely entry Sinopharm till Pfizer was launched within the capital emirate final week.
Some within the medical neighborhood have forged doubt on the efficacy of the Sinopharm shot, as a consequence of conflicting figures from interim trials and a scarcity of printed information on its part Three trials. It has not but been accepted by the World Health Organization.
Economic and private prices
The U.Okay. record, which might be reviewed within the coming weeks, lists 40 excessive threat international locations deemed too harmful to travel, together with India, which is in a state of nationwide disaster as it offers with surging an infection charges and a mounting demise toll.
The ban additionally had actual world penalties for Dubai Airports, which claims London as a “key single city” for Dubai Airport passenger traffic. Before the pandemic, greater than 6 million folks would fly between the 2 cities in a single yr, Griffiths stated.
“It’s almost unthinkable not having a solid air-bridge of flights, 28 services a day, between here and the U.K.,” Griffiths stated. “The irony, of course, is that you can fly to Scotland but you can’t fly to England,” he added.
“It’s obviously something that everyone here in Dubai is very concerned to resolve very quickly.”
The determination additionally impacts most of the roughly 120,000 U.Okay. nationals dwelling and dealing within the UAE and their members of the family, who’ve expressed confusion and anger, significantly over the resort quarantine requirement which runs up a hefty price ticket of £1,750 ($2,428) per individual.
