Kenya bans UAE flights in tit-for-tat

Kenya has suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for seven days, effective from January 10, 2021, the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) announced.

“We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to the UAE,” KCAA Director-General Gilbert Kibe told local media outlets.

The ban does not apply to cargo flights.

This follows a travel advisory on January 7 by Emirates (EK, Dubai Int’l) that passengers to/from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta would not be accepted on its flights until further notice. This also applied to passengers to/from Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Lusaka (Zambia), Harare Int’l (Zimbabwe), Lagos and Abuja (Nigeria), and Casablanca Int’l (Morocco), the airline said.

The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority on December 24 extended until January 2, 2022, a temporary ban of all passenger flights from Kenya amid concerns about fake negative COVID-19 test results issued in Kenya.

Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) had been active in the Kenya-UAE market prior to the moratorium.