RIYADH — The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has confirmed that starting from Wednesday morning, Saudi Arabia has lifted the suspension of direct flights from six countries. The ban was imposed in March 2020 to contain the spread of Covdi-19..

From 1 a.m. Wednesday, people from Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt and India can travel directly to Saudi Arabia without having to spend 14 days outside these countries before entering the Kingdom, GACA said in a statement.

GACA stressed to all air carriers the importance of implementing mandatory arrival procedures, which include presenting a valid PCR certificate issued 72 hours before the flight, registration on the Qdoom platform, institutional quarantine for a period of 5 days regardless of the immunization status outside the Kingdom and taking a medical swab on the first and fifth days of the institutional quarantine.

GACA affirmed its continued commitment to the implementation of all precautionary and preventive measures adopted in Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Interior explained that all procedures and measures are subject to continuous evaluation by the Kingdom’s health authorities.

Flights to and from the Kingdom were first suspended on March 14, 2020, two weeks after the World Health Organization declared that the coronavirus outbreak was a pandemic.

The travel ban covered Lebanon, UAE, Egypt, Turkey, the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Japan. However, diplomats, medical staff, and their families were allowed to enter the Kingdom.

The ban also applied to travelers who transited through any of the 20 countries in the 14 days before a planned visit to Saudi Arabia. — SG/SPA