Saudi Arabia indefinitely suspends flights from India, Brazil and Argentina

Saudi Arabia has indefinitely suspended flights to and from three countries – India, Brazil, and Argentina – as a measure to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

The directive which was issued by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) on Tuesday added that any individual who has been in either of these three countries in the last 14 days prior to their arrival to the kingdom would also be denied entry.

However, excluded from these travel bans are “passengers who have official government invitations.”

The circular was issued to all airlines and chartered flight companies operating within Saudi and did not specify until when these suspensions will remain in effect.

Saudi Arabia partially lifted travel restrictions and reopened its international commercial passenger flight operations on September 15, after a six-month suspension due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Read: Saudi Arabia to permit residents to return from September 15; will lift all travel restrictions by January 1, 2021

The recent circular cited the number of Covid-19 cases in the three countries as the reason for the flight suspensions.

India has the second number of highest reported cases, currently recorded at over 5.7 million confirmed infections.

Brazil has the third highest number of infections which stands at over 4.6 million.

Argentina meanwhile has also seen a sharp increase in the number of infections within the country recently, reporting 12,625 new infections on Wednesday, September 23.