UAE halts all Iran flights over coronavirus outbreak till the end of March
The chairman of Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joint chamber of commerce announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended all flights from Iran until the end of March due to the escalating outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Islamic Republic.
Speaking to ILNA news agency, Farshid Farzanegan said "It seems that the resumption of the flights is unlikely unless conditions in Iran are well-controlled."
"At present, only one-way flights from Dubai to Iran have been operated to return Iranian citizens," he added.
The UAE, home to long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, remains a key international transit route for Iran's 80 million people.
Emirates, the government-owned carrier based in Dubai, flies daily to Tehran. Its low-cost sister airline, FlyDubai, flies to multiple Iranian cities, as does the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia.
The chairman of Iran-UAE chamber of commerce further said that Iran Foreign Ministry examines this issue every few days and negotiates with the UAE.
Head of Iran's Health Ministry Public Relations Office Kianoush Jahanpour said on Monday that 2,394 people out of a total of 7,161 infected by the coronavirus have recovered and were discharged from hospitals and Some 291 people have unfortunately succumbed to death.
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