Emirates suspends Dubai to Auckland flight bookings for three weeks

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New Zealanders on the UAE will struggle to book a flight home for another three weeks.

A temporary suspension on flight bookings has been placed into effect simply by Emirates, following the New Zealand government announced it really is restricting inbound capacity to ease pressure about quarantine facilities.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said the brand new Zealand government was dealing with airlines to control more and more Kiwis attempting to return home. This implies restricting capacity on flights.

Emirates restarted its Dubai - Auckland service on July 1 and currently operates the route four situations a week.

On Wednesday, an Emirates spokeswoman told The National that brand-new bookings would "temporarily be unavailable for the next three weeks".

"Existing bookings during this time period will stay unaffected. The safety of our passengers and crew is normally our highest priority and we are working with the relevant authorities to minimise disruption.”

New Zealand ambassador to the UAE Matthew Hawkins urged Kiwis abroad to monitor the government's Safe Travel website for updates and sign up to the website for alerts.

The New Zealand government is managing flights into the country to ensure with the ability to safely place returnees into a managed isolation or quarantine facility.

Air New Zealand, the country's national carrier, has also put a temporary hold on latest bookings and is now looking at aligning daily arrivals with the capability offered by managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

Safe Travel features warned this could also have a flow-on effect for a few months to come for all those coming from further more afield and connecting to Air New Zealand flights from Emirates, Etihad or Qatar Airways flights.

"New Zealanders should be aware that transit options to come back to New Zealand happen to be limited, booked flights could be cancelled and immigration requirements of different countries can easily change," the statement explained.

"New Zealand cannot influence or guarantee another country or airline’s entry, exit or transit requirements and it is the responsibility of every traveller to check the latest requirements themselves."

New Zealand has garnered international praise because of its handling of the pandemic, including lately from WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The Pacific nation's only active cases of Covid-19 are persons who are new arrivals and so are in managed isolation facilities. There happens to be no proof community transmission, and 67 days have passed because the last locally acquired case from an unknown source recovered.

Nonetheless, it has become increasingly problematic for Antipodeans to come back home in recent times.

Flights have already been diverted from Melbourne until July 14, seeing as metropolis grapples with containing a new spike of circumstances and enforcing another lockdown found in elements of the city.

Subsequently, other airports across Australia have begun introducing passengers limited on flights. Sydney, for instance, has now created a cap of 50 persons per flight, and a maximum number of 450 travellers each day.

Certain states on Australia have also started making travellers purchase their very own quarantine costs, a mandatory 14-day hotel stay.
Source: https://www.thenational.ae

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