Guidelines issued for air travel in and out of the UAE
You can travel out of the UAE from June 23
Seif Al-Dhaheri, a spokesperson for the National Authority for Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management in UAE, announced on Monday at a press briefing that the decision to allow people to travel to and from the UAE comes with a caveat.
Countries and travel destinations have been divided into three categories: ‘low risk’, ‘medium risk’ and ‘high risk’, depending on the health conditions and spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in these countries.
Approval and ‘OK-to-travel’
Al Dhaheri said people who get appproval to travel must coordinate and follow up with airline companies to learn about the latest developments and follow up on ‘ok-to-travel’ status updates.
Al Dhaheri said that many countries are still closed for travellers and that authorities in the UAE are constantly monitoring the health situation around the world, bearing in mind that a majority of countries still have their airspace closed. He added that the authorities will ensure coordination with countries and follow-up.
Guidelines
Al Dhaheri announced the following guidelines for travel:
1. Families travel together
Members of the same family are allowed to travel together for medical treatment or to visit close family. However, this movement will depend on the classification of countries and is subject to obtaining approval for travel.
2. Returning travellers to self-quarantine
Upon re-entry, each passenger is to be tested. If the result of the COVID-19 test is negative, the traveller must commit to quarantine for a period of 14 days, and this period may be reduced in some cases to 7 days for workers in the vital sector or if they are coming from less dangerous countries.
3. Online travel request
A travel request should submitted through the competent authorities or the website http://smartservices.ica.gov.ae, after which the traveller will be informed of approval based on a number of requirements, including the classification of the level of risk of the country to be visited, and the reason for travel, as well as approval of health regulations in the desired destination.
Earlier this week, Dubai had announced guidelines for residents returning to the UAE, starting in June, and the opening of Dubai to tourists and visitors in July. Tourists and visitors are expected to have appropriate entry permits and PCR test results. Dubai authorities also announced that PCR tests would be conducted forresidents retuning or for those tourists, visitors who don’t have a PCR test result to show.
All travellers will be required to sign health declaration forms as well as oblige to undertake costs of quarantine or treatment if applicable.
