The UAE is ‘likely to establish quarantine-free travel corridors with Europe and US soon’…

Thousands of people have been waiting on tenterhooks for the UK’s June 7 decision regarding its ‘red list’ for travel and whether or not the UAE will finally be taken off it. Now, Dubai Airports CEO, Paul Griffiths, has said that he doesn’t expect the UAE to come off the UK’s red list yet.

According to The National, Mr Griffiths told CNN that ‘the UAE is likely to secure new quarantine-free travel corridors with the EU and the US before it comes off Britain’s red list’. The UK’s travel corridor list is set to be reviewed some time between June 3 and 7.

A quarantine-free travel corridor was recently established between the UAE and Italy, meaning that from June 1, passengers can travel between the two countries provided they are fully vaccinated, or can prove a negative PCR test.

Regarding the UK, Griffiths told CNN: “The problem of course is that in the UK the situation is not looking great. They were looking so well in containing the spread of Covid-19, but of course recently that situation seems to be rather more challenging (due to a recent spike in Covid-19 cases due to the Indian variant)”.

He continued: “So I am not sure that the UK’s going to change the status of the UAE. We’re obviously anticipating something happening at some stage in the future, but I think for the time being that the corridor we’ve agreed with Italy is a very positive step.”

Griffiths outlined that he hopes by creating successful travel corridors between the UAE, Europe and the US, it will ‘give the UK government the courage and conviction to allow flights to restart between the UAE and the UK’.

He stressed that “the UK is an incredibly important market with London the biggest air travel route between the UAE and the UK. So we’re all very, very keen to get those discussions under way.”

According to The Independent, the revised green, amber and red lists will be announced on June 3, to be implemented from June 7.

Currently, those who wish to return to the UK may do so, however they will have to stay in a UK government-approved hotel for 10 days at a personal cost of £1,750 (approx. Dhs8884). Failure to do so means a fine of up to £10,000 (approx. Dhs50,766).

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