Etihad Airways, which operates up to 12 flights a day between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, has announced its suspending them in a bid to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
In a press release issued by the airline, Etihad noted that it has cancelled a total of seven flights today between Abu Dhabi and the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah, and is now advising passengers who were booked to travel today.
Another four flights which were en-route to Saudi Arabia at the time of the directive were permitted to land. When flights arrived in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, nationals of Saudi Arabia were permitted to disembark but all other passengers remained on the aircraft, which will return to Abu Dhabi.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, school and universities have closed for four weeks and students have been quarantined, and hundreds of events across the country, from The Retail Summit to Comic Con 2020, have been cancelled or postponed.