MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/: Russian flagship air carrier Aeroflot will on Friday resume its flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), interrupted this spring amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The flights will be carried out twice a week - on Friday and Saturday. The first flight is scheduled to take off at 2:30 Moscow time on Friday.
COVID-19 PCR tests are mandatory for all inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai (and the UAE), including UAE citizens, residents and tourists, irrespective of the country they are coming from. Upon their arrival from UAE, Russian citizens will have to undergo another test and upload the results to the official state services portal.
Earlier this week, the Russian airline resumed flights to Cairo (Egypt) and the Maldives.
Last week, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree on the resumption on a reciprocal basis of international flights with Egypt, the UAE and the Maldives. According to government press service, airlines will be able to operate 2 flights a week to Dubai and the Maldives, to Cairo - three flights a week. The decision to open these countries to international flights was made based on the fact that they have a relatively low infection rate, as well as on the basis of reciprocity.
Regular flights between Russia and other countries were interrupted at the end of March due to the coronavirus pandemic. After that, only the so-called repatriation flights could be carried out. From August 1, it was allowed to resume flights to the UK, Tanzania and Turkey. Flights between Russia and Switzerland resumed on August 15.
