Etihad extends ban on flights from India 'till further notice'

The United Arab Emirates has extended a suspension for those travelling from India and several other South Asian countries due to Covid-related guidelines. According to Etihad Airlines, the ban will be in place till further notice. However, other airlines have said this is pending government review.

The extension does not include UAE citizens, diplomats or those holding the nation's investor visa. Nor does it include fully vaccinated travellers that hold a residency visa and have taken three tests since June 23rd.

However, those who fall outside this bracket and hope to conduct business or travel for leisure to the UAE will have to continue to wait for the restrictions to be lifted.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia warned on Tuesday that citizens visiting destinations on its list of countries blacklisted due to Covid-19 will face three-year travel bans following their return.

Those found to have travelled to restricted countries would face "hefty penalties... as well as being prevented from travelling abroad for a period of three years", the interior ministry said on Twitter.

"Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the spread of new variants, the ministry warns against travelling to countries on its (restricted) list, whether directly or indirectly via other countries."

According to the kingdom's state airline Saudia, citizens are barred from travelling to 16 countries, including the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.

In its latest update to travel restrictions earlier this month, Riyadh said it had suspended flights to the UAE, Ethiopia and Vietnam to protect against a coronavirus variant.

The move comes after the oil-rich kingdom permitted fully immunised citizens to travel abroad, after a ban on foreign trips that lasted more than a year.

The UAE, and especially the emirate of Dubai, is a key leisure destination for Saudis.

The decision was taken due to "the spread of a new mutated strain of the (Covid-19) virus", the interior ministry said at the time, without explicitly mentioning the increasingly widespread Delta variant.

The variant, first detected in India and now present in dozens of countries around the world, is the most contagious of any Covid-19 strain yet identified.