Covid test trouble: Air India Express takes Dubai fliers from Tiruchy to Sharjah
Passengers wait seven hours as airline refuses to accept results of Tiruchy airport’s Covid Rapid PCR tests, claiming they do not meet Dubai’s requirements
Published: 13th August 2021 05:41 AM |
Covid norms go for a toss as people wait at an RT-PCR laboratory at Chennai International Airport on Thursday. (Photo | Martin Louis/EPS)
Express News Service
TIRUCHY: The Air India Express’ (AIE) decision to divert its Dubai-bound flight carrying 134 passengers to Sharjah on Thursday, saying that the Dubai airport authorities were not ready to accept the Rapid PCR tests taken at the Tiruchy airport, led to tense moments and arguments at the airport.
The Dubai flight, which was scheduled to take off at 9.25 am from the Tiruchy airport, had to wait for seven hours, before the airlines finally decided to take the passengers to Sharjah instead of Dubai.
With several European and West Asian countries now insisting on a Rapid-PCR test result taken just hours before departure, the Tiruchy airport recently started the facility to help passengers.
However, passengers waiting for the Dubai flight were in for a shock on Thursday when AIE informed them that the Dubai airport was not ready to accept the test reports taken at the Tiruchy airport.
The take-off got delayed for several hours owing to the confusion and passengers were stressed when the airline was still not able to come up with a solution.
Some of the passengers were seen getting into heated arguments with the airline staff.
According to sources, the Tiruchy airport has only one machine, like what had been specified by the Dubai authorities, and most of test results were coming from other machines.
So, the AIE was hesitant to accept the results, fearing they might be rejected on reaching the destination.
“Dubai airport has specifically mentioned a particular machine for the Rapid PCR test at airports in India. The lab at Tiruchy airport has only one such machine. Therefore, the airline was forced to divert the flight to Sharjah. The airline took up the matter with Dubai and we got the approval for all the machines that Tiruchy is currently using,” said the Air India Express chief of corporate communications.
Meanwhile, Tiruchy Airport director S Dharmaraj dismissed the allegation that the airport did not have the facilities specified for passengers heading to Dubai.
“We are already providing the facility as per the requirement. In fact, IndiGo operated a Dubai flight with the same facility from Tiruchy on Thursday evening. IndiGo’s Dubai flight with 160 passengers took off at 5:34 pm,” he said.
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