UAE: New Rules for Charter Flights to India
Indian missions in the UAE on Wednesday issued new rules for charter flights for repatriation services to India which will come into effect from Thursday.
The Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India in Dubai jointly issued a press statement announcing the new SOPs.
Under the new SOPs, the following steps will be required to be followed for chartering a flight from the UAE to India for repatriation:
a. Chartering entities should identify an Air Transport Operator (ATO) on their own.
b. ATOs send the receiving state (where the destination airport is located) their flight plans, state clearance forms and passenger manifests directly, with a copy to the Embassy/Consulate. While the Embassy/Consulate will vet the passenger manifest, the ATO simultaneously should proceed to get state clearance for the flight directly in writing.
c. Once the state clearance is in hand, the ATO has to take a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the manifest from the Embassy/Consulate.
d. With the state clearance and NOC from the Embassy/Consulate, the ATO should approach the DGCA for flight clearance.
e. States and ATOs manage flight schedule, frequency etc. with regard to all arriving passengers. They should also coordinate with each other where chartered flights have mixed domicile passengers.
f. Where required, chartering entities finalise quarantine arrangements directly with the states.
The contact list of state coordinators who will be the points of contact for ATOs (both Indian and foreign) have been shared with the ATOs who can work out the schedule of their chartered flights with them, from now onwards, the missions stated.
