UAE based airline, Emirates, announced the resumption of normal flight operations to and from Pakistan today.
Previously, Emirates was operating a flight schedule that allowed Pakistani travellers to use its Dubai airport as a transit.
Passengers were not allowed to leave the airport and instead were allowed to catch connecting flights only.
@emirates airline announced the resumption of flights to 29 cities and transits through #Dubai. As of June 8, travelers from #Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad can book connecting flights from Dubai to other destinations.https://t.co/mW5CnKfcyF pic.twitter.com/a0pbu7rmYf
— Arab News Japan (@ArabNewsjp) June 5, 2020
Passengers were allowed to board the plane only after producing evidence of a negative COVID-19 test conducted in the past 96 hours.
Emirates allows disembarkation at Dubai airport from Pakistan
This time, however, the flight schedule will allow both, disembarkation and transit, at the Dubai airport. This means passengers can catch connecting flights as well as disembark from the airport.
However, even after this resumption of flights, Emirates operations in Pakistan were temporarily suspended from 23rd June to 3rd July after 55 passengers, travelling via Emirates from Pakistan to Hong Kong, tested positive for COVID-19.
Read more: Emirates, Etihad and Fly Dubai suspend flights from Pakistan
It must be noted that all commercial traffic of airlines was disrupted worldwide due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, most international airlines had suspended their operations in Pakistan in March 2020.
Only a handful of repatriation and cargo flights were allowed to operate.