After Emirates and Etihad, FlyDubai sent out repatriation flights to take people back to their home countries, from the UAE. The airline operated 23 flights between March 19 and April 8, 2020, flying out 2800 passengers from the UAE. FlyDubai provided flights to Afghanistan, Croatia, Egypt, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Somaliland and Thailand during this period. In addition, FlyDubai is also in talks with authorities to provide free flights for Emiratis returning home.
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The repatriation flights operated from terminal 2 at Dubai International airport, carrying passengers outbound from the UAE. However, UAE nationals were permitted to return to the country. In addition, the airline also transported essential goods and medicines in the flights, to help passengers.
FlyDubai also mentioned that it plans to add 10 more repatriation flights over the next week. The airline is coordinating closely with the authorities on bringing UAE nationals home free of charge.
Hamad Obaidalla, chief commercial officer of flydubai, said: “We acknowledge the challenges we are all facing in dealing with this pandemic and the impact it will have not only on our industry, but also on our livelihood and how we do things moving forward.
“We choose to remain focused on how we can contribute to easing the strain, enabling the movement of essential goods to where they are needed and bringing people back home where possible. We remain committed to supporting requests from governments to operate repatriation flights for their citizens.
“We look forward to resuming our operations when the time is right and we are working closely with the authorities,” he added.
The airline also confirmed that is is following all the necessary sanitization and disinfection rules in all its aircrafts.
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What Else?
Meanwhile, on other news the UAE is mulling on reviewing labour relations with countries not responding to evacuation requests. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) is looking into revising labour ties with nations refusing to respond to the UAE’s efforts to repatriate private sector expatriates who wish to return home. The move comes after a number of nations failed to respond to requests by their nationals to return home.
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