The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) have announced the suspension of all inbound flights for national and international carriers coming from India.
In the announcement made in a statement on Thursday, the GCAA said the travel ban includes inbound transit passengers with the exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and then heading on to India.
Passengers coming from India through other countries must have spent a period of stay in those countries is not less than 14 days to be allowed to enter the UAE as of 23.59 on 24 April.
Cargo flights between the two countries will continue, as usual, the statement added.
The GCAA stated that UAE nationals and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen's planes and golden residence holders are excluded from this decision, as long as they take preventive measures that include a 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport as well as another test on the fourth and eighth days of entering the country, and to reduce the period of PCR test from 72 hours to 48 hours, provided that the tests issued by accredited laboratories bearing the QR Code are accepted.
The GCAA said, "The decision to suspend flights came after studying and evaluating the epidemiological situation in the friendly Republic of India and within the framework of continuous coordination and cooperation with all relevant authorities inside and outside the country that continuously monitor developments in the situation to maintain the security and safety of civil aviation."