From the Emirates Travel Updates section of the Emirates website:
In this article
Negative PCR Certificate Required (COVID-19) for Specific Emirates Flights
Effective 10th July, if you are flying with Emirates from the countries or airports specified below, you must carry a negative PCR certificate issued by a local government approved laboratory to be accepted on the flight.
If the UAE government has specified a designated laboratory in your country of origin, you must get your test certificate from that lab. Certificates must be issued no more than 96 hours before departure:
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Egypt
- India
- Iran
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Russian Federation
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- USA – Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO), including passengers originating from California, Florida and Texas connecting to an Emirates flight to Dubai.
There’s no UAE lab in the United States, so that will be one less thing to worry about for travelers from the USA, though not only will you need to source a COVID-19 testing center in your area, you’ll need to ensure the turnaround time for results is under 96 hours. Some still have a 7 day lag time for results.
They’ve also limited the US airports requiring tests to only those in high risk areas.
Will this be Effective?
I think it makes a lot of sense that they are doing this. OMAAT covered an Emirates flight on June 22 where 26 passengers tested positive, likely as the result of one infected passenger. The infections ranged from row 18 to 44, showing just how much spread can occur if there is a highly contagious passenger.
While as a New Yorker, I’m happy that we, having gotten COVID-19 under control in the tri-state area by taking the coronavirus super seriously, I’m also concerned that someone might simply choose to fly from a high-risk state, untested, to NY to catch their onward flight – and turn out to be contagious.
Probably, they should just be requiring this of all ex-US departures.
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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