All international flights, including those by Air India, to and from Saudi Arabia were suspended for a week on Monday due to fears over a new strain of coronavirus that put London and the entire south of England in a Christmas lockdown last week. .
The General Civil Aviation Authority (GACA) quoted a source from the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry on Monday to report that all international flights will remain suspended for a week and said there is a probability that the suspension will be extended for another week depending of the situation. circumstances. He also stressed that flights will be allowed only in exceptional circumstances.
“An official source in the Interior Ministry: The Kingdom decides to suspend all international flights for travelers, except in exceptional cases, temporarily for a week, which can be extended for another week (freely translated from Arabic),” GACA tweeted on Monday . .
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman were among the Gulf nations whose governments announced that they would ban entry and exit across their land and sea borders by prohibiting cargo movements and canceling commercial travel. An AFP report said the ban will not apply to international planes currently in the kingdom, which will be allowed to depart. The report also said that cargo from countries where the new strain has not caused an outbreak will be able to enter Saudi Arabia.
Several nations in Europe and the Middle East closed their doors to the UK and temporarily halted international business travel as a rapidly spreading strain of coronavirus put various parts of the UK on lockdown. The UK government had told the media on Sunday that the new strain of coronavirus is out of control.
India also suspended all flights from the UK from December 22 to December 31 for fear of the new Covid-19 strain. Poland, Russia, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Morocco and several other countries have halted their operations to and from the UK to limit the spread of the new strain.
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