Major relief to travellers from Dubai after Kenya lifted its seven-day suspension on all inbound and transit passenger flights from United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to a report by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the ban expired yesterday after a two-week standoff with the UAE over Covid-19 certificates.
Kenya suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the UAE on January 10th.
The ban was a retaliation move against Dubai who banned all passenger flights from Kenya over fake Covid tests.
“Inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE is suspended for a period of seven days. We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to UAE,” KCAA Director General, Gilbert Kibe said.
However, the Kenyan suspension did not affect cargo freights and passenger flights from Dubai to Nairobi.
Last week, Kenya and Dubai failed to reach a consensus again over the ban with Kenya insisting Dubai first lifts its ban on flights from Kenya, after which Nairobi would follow suit.
According to Foreign Affairs CS Rachel Omamo the talks were between her ministry, the ministry of health and officials from Dubai.
Last year, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority temporarily suspended all air transport services with inbound and transit passenger movements from Kenya claiming several passengers arriving from Nairobi tested positive for Covid-19, yet they had certificates showing they were negative.
According to Kibe, corrupt officials from the Health Ministry collude with travellers to issue fake Covid-19 PCR results to aid travel to Dubai.
So far, twelve people have been arrested for producing fake Covid-19 test results at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).