UAE is in talks with UK about ‘red list’ travel ban, should be off list ‘soon,’ Emirates chairman says

UAE is in talks with UK about ‘red list’ travel ban, should be off list ‘soon,’ Emirates chairman says

The chairman of Dubai's flagship airline is optimistic about a return to travel between the United Arab Emirates and the U.K. - one of its top tourism and investment partners - even as a new Covid-19 variant threatens to complicate reopening plans. The mostly-expatriate desert sheikhdom of roughly 10 million since mid-January, requiring a mandatory hotel quarantine for anyone arriving from the UAE, which runs up a hefty price tag of £1,750 ($2,428) per person. The early this year was triggered by in both countries, set off by a highly contagious variant of the disease first identified in the U.K. Now as the summer months approach and vaccination rates increase,  "Our officials are already speaking and taking that very seriously; talking to the government and to the officials there to make sure that we should be very soon off the red list," Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told CNBC at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Monday. Spokespersons for the U.K.'s Foreign Office and Transport Ministry were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. The U.K. Foreign Office currently "advises against all but essential travel to the whole of the