São Paulo – Emirates has announced on Friday (29) it will temporarily suspend flights between Dubai and São Paulo. The website of newspaper Khaleej Times reported that passenger services will be suspended from February 1 through 10.
The move is attributed to the COVID-19 situation. Brazil has recorded a sharp increase in cases, having reached 8.9 million cases and 220,100 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. A new strain of the virus is in the country.
The United Arab Emirates have posted the largest numbers of new coronavirus cases ever. WHO reports 293,000 cases and 819 deaths in the country. Last week, infections numbered almost 4,000 a day.
Emirates Airlines clarified the last flights on the route would be one from Dubai to São Paulo departing on Saturday (30) and one from São Paulo to Dubai departing on Sunday (31). “Customers with São Paulo as their final destination after these dates will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin,” said the airline.
The airline has advised affected customers to contact their booking agent or Emirates call center for rebooking options. The company was operating five weekly São Paulo-Dubai flights. One has been resumed recently, in early January.
The UAE is taking several other steps to curb the spread of the COVID-19 in the country. As Brazil, the Arab country has kicked off its vaccination plan. Emirates has announced the suspension of flights between Dubai and the United Kingdom, where a new strain of the COVID-19 virus has been spread, and UAE-South Africa, which has also reported a new coronavirus strain.
Despite the flight suspension, the UAE hasn’t banned the entry of Brazilians. Many Brazilians travel to the UAE by connecting in other countries. But passengers must show a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours prior to the flight at arriving and do a new test then.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
