Emirates and Etihad suspend flights to Melbourne
15 February, 2021
UAE airlines are suspending flights to Melbourne just after new lockdown steps were introduced on Victoria, Australia.
On Fri, authorities declared most of greater Melbourne, including Melbourne Airport terminal, a coronavirus spot. The point out entered a five-day time lockdown to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak that is linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport terminal quarantine hotel.
Following announcement, Emirates and Etihad Airways happen to be suspending all industrial passenger flights coming from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Melbourne.
Emirates cancels flights to March
From Tuesday, Emirates will halt passenger flights from Dubai to Melbourne. These flights will become suspended until past due March.
"Given passenger allocation restrictions in flights to Australia, the suspension will stay in place until March 26. During this time, air travel EK408 will operate as a cargo-only assistance," an Emirates representative advised The National.
"The return air travel EK409 from Melbourne to Dubai will operate normally with both passenger and cargo capacity."
The representative advised travellers damaged by the suspension to get hold of their travel agent or Emirates' contact centre for rebooking options. The airline goes on to use flights for travellers from Dubai to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
The Dubai airline recently restarted flights to the united states after a non permanent pause introduced when Australia imposed caps on the amount of international passengers allowed to fly in to the country each day.
Etihad flights suspended
The national airline of the UAE in addition has cancelled flights to Melbourne. Etihad operated its previous airline flight to the Victorian capital from Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The airline explained passenger flights to the Australian city are suspended "until additional notice".
“Following a latest Australian federal government directives, from February 14 most Etihad passenger flights to Melbourne have been suspended until further detect," a representative from the airline told The National.
Etihad said it was working closely with influenced guests to notify them of improvements to flights also to support them rearrange their travel plans.
Etihad continues to fly travellers from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, with the airline operating five flights weekly.
"This is an evolving scenario and we'll update friends as more info becomes obtainable. Etihad regrets any inconvenience caused to its guests by these temporary constraints," added the representative.
In Victoria, officials reported two new local Covid-19 conditions on Sunday, the second evening of the snap lockdown applied to contain the spread of the outbreak.
The two cases, among which was a child aged 3, were the first who were not household contacts of a cluster of infected staff at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport quarantine hotel which triggered the lockdown, health authorities said.
THE VACATION Inn outbreak has affected 16 people.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com