The UK government has agreed to a deal with the UAE to allow selected repatriation flights to transit at Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The news comes shortly after British Airways reached an informal agreement with Singaporean aviation authorities to keep the airline’s Sydney to London transiting through Changi Airport, despite the country’s ban on transit arrivals.
Hundreds of Brits remain stranded in Australia and New Zealand, and repatriation efforts have been contingent on keeping at least one transit hub open for British Airways.
However, the news that both Dubai and Abu Dhabi will open for transit has lead some suggestions that other countries may look to do so the same.
Though the UAE has closed its doors to international arrivals and transit passengers, Dubai Airport announced 4 April that “Emirates airline was granted approval by UAE authorities to fly passengers outbound from the UAE to some destinations” the previous day.
The MoU with British Airways was also signed on 4 April, between the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UK ambassador to the UAE.
The UK ?? and the UAE ?? have signed an agreement to help get stranded British nationals home.
Read more ?https://t.co/g4LwnXSIyC
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) April 4, 2020
For now at least, it seems that UAE airports will remain a viable hub for BA repatriations. The latest data available from Swedish tracker Flightradar24 shows that BA15/BA16 (Sydney to London via Singapore) is still in operation at the time of writing.
After the two-week moratorium on incoming flights into the country, the UAE’s two national carriers have announced a limited number of outbound repatriation flights. As of 6 April, Emirates, for example, will be running:
- London Heathrow 4x per week
- Brussels 3x per week
- Frankfurt 3x per week
- Paris 3x per week
- Zurich 3x per week
