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ISLAMABAD: The Federal government has extended the ban on flights from the UK to enter Pakistan in wake of the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 and reports of a mutated form of the virus spreading in the UK.
According to a notification, the government has extended the ban on flights from the UK to enter the country to control the COVID-19 variant. Earlier the federal government had banned travelers from entering Pakistan in view of the ongoing second wave of COVID-19.
Travel restrictions for inbound travel from UK is extended till January 04, 2021, 2359 hours. pic.twitter.com/0Z6OBimkUK
— PCAAOfficial (@official_pcaa) December 28, 2020
The ban took effect on the night between December 22 and 23 and remained in effect to date. Passengers who were in transit and had not landed at the British airport were allowed to come to Pakistan. Passengers with Pakistani passports were allowed to enter the country after proving that they were not COVID-19 positive.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced that non-Saudis could now leave the kingdom after all international commercial flights were halted last week.
The country’s aviation authority directed airlines operating in the airports of the Kingdom to transport non-Saudi passengers outside the Kingdom, and that is in total compliance with the precautionary measures to prevent COVID-19.
GACA has given permission to foreign airlines to operate charter flights for this purpose on the condition that the crew of a landing plane at the Kingdom’s airports do not leave their plane, and that they do not physically have contact with the ground/operation staff of the arrival airport.
Last week, the Kingdom closed its borders and suspended commercial flights over fears about a new coronavirus variant, which was detected in the United Kingdom. Following the order by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) canceled all flights to the kingdom.
