Ethiopian Airlines received the COVID-19 related extension of a ban on flights from Addis Ababa International Airport (ADD) to Pudong Airport (PVG) in Shanghai. Following a strict Chinese authority’s decision to forbid the entry for COVID-19-infected travelers, Ethiopian Airlines reportedly would not be able to operate the route until January 1, 2021.

On November 4, 2020, the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) reportedly put a flight ban on the route from Addis Ababa (ADD) to Shanghai Pudong (PVG), reported local media. The measure was taken as the Chinese authority’s precaution to forbid the COVID-19-infected travelers to enter the country. 

According to Chinese media, the authority decided to extend a ban of Ethiopian Airlines operations on a particular route until January 1, 2020. The air carrier has allegedly been found multiple times carrying the COVID-19 infected passengers on board.

A previous five-week-long flight ban came into force on October 26, after the Ethiopian air carrier was reportedly carrying ten COVID-19-infected passengers on the same ADD-PVG flight. A bit earlier in the same month, the Chinese authority reportedly found five travelers whose COVID-19 testing result appeared to be positive. Back in August 2020, six more infected passengers were found onboard Ethiopian Airlines aircraft.

The Ethiopian air carrier flight ban follows CAAC’s strict COVID-19 precaution policy. As local media reported, the rules of the CAAC specify that if five passengers on the same flight were tested as COVID-19-positive, the operator receives a one-week-long particular route ban. However, if there are 10 infected travelers, the route could be suspended for up to four weeks.