EK to Decommission 50%+ of Airbus A380, Axe 1/2 of Pilots & Cabin Crew

[Emma Royds]

I am a bit puzzled why people are defensive of how Dubai has managed the pandemic. They have clearly put financial gain above all else and promoted the city as a destination to tourists where you can shake off the lockdown winter blues and do what you can't do at home, just as long as you remember to wear a mask!

During the holiday season, it was possible for passengers from some countries to test either before departure or on arrival in Dubai. The rules were made as relaxed as possible and it allowed those who were already tested and those who might have the virus and want to test on arrival, to mix on board. Hopefully the following example will hopefully illustrate why. Passenger A elects to test before travelling from Europe to Dubai and sits beside passenger B onboard, who elects to test on arrival in DXB. Passenger B is infected with COVID whilst travelling. Passenger A presents their negative PCR test when they arrive and can go about their day to day life as normal as soon as they leave the airport but has just spent the past 6 odd hours sat next to a passenger who was infected with COVID. Hopefully passenger B would get picked up with a positive COVID test on arrival but that is little consolation for passenger A who is now out and about in the community and could have caught the virus from passenger B who was sat next to them. I have flown in and out of DXB a few times on different airlines during the pandemic and not once was the DHA contact tracing paperwork collected on arrival at DXB, which had your seat allocation and contact details on it. Also not once was I asked if I had the COVID19 – DXB Smart App on my phone either at check-in or on arrival, which I understand was and still is a requirement too.

I am not condoning the drastic lockdowns that we see in many parts of the world at the moment but it speaks volumes when the two largest cities in such a small country have diametrically opposed approaches to the pandemic, that has resulted in one needing a PCR test to travel to Abu Dhabi.