Dubai's national carrier Emirates Airlines will suspend all international air passenger flights as of 25 March until further notice in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic, the Emirates Group announced today.
"The world has literally gone into quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is an unprecedented crisis situation in terms of breadth and scale," chief executive of the Emirates Group Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said. "As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot viably operate passenger services until countries re-open their borders, and travel confidence returns."
Emirates did say, however, that its cargo operations will continue unaffected.
The move comes as an increasing number of countries lock down their borders and impose travel restrictions on their citizens in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Dubai airport services provider dnata said it has also significantly reduced operations, with low air travel demand prompting the temporary closure of operations at some of its international locations.
The decision was announced as the total number of confirmed cases worldwide crossed the 300,000 mark, resulting in the deaths of more than 13,500 people. The UAE announced 13 new cases over the weekend to bring the total number of cases in the country to 153. It also reported its first two casualties from the disease.
Over the course of the last week, the airline has been increasingly tightening its flight restrictions. Less than 24 hours before taking the decision to suspend all of its passenger flights, the carrier announced that it would suspend all flights to dozens more cities, taking its total closed routes to 111.
The UAE had earlier imposed a ban on all passengers from abroad as of 19 March, including those holding valid resident visas or visas-on-arrival. UAE citizens, diplomatic passport holders and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nationals would be exempt, albeit with the exception of Qatari nationals. Passengers transiting through UAE airports were also exempt. The UAE said these measures will be in place for at least two weeks.
The UAE also temporarily suspended the issuance of all work visas as of 19 March until further notice, although Expo 2020 permit holders and intra-corporate transfers will be exempt.
Abu Dhabi's state-owned carrier Etihad Airways also announced over the weekend that it will be temporarily suspending flights to 40 cities in a host of countries, including some of those worst hit by the virus so far like China, Spain, Italy. Flights to all cities in India and Saudi Arabia have also been suspended until further notice.
Emirates airlines is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing carriers, and consumes about 230,000 b/d of jet fuel annually. And the unprecedented travel restrictions implemented by governments are very likely to continue weighing on Mideast Gulf jet fuel premiums while uncertainty persists about how long it will take to bring the pandemic under control.
By Sarah Raffoul
