Eritrea will allow the limited resumption of commercial international flights from Asmara in mid-April, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Flights will be restricted to weekly schedules on routes between Asmara and Addis Ababa International (Ethiopia); and Asmara and Dubai International (UAE) with the implementation of strict preventive health measures, including PCR testing before departure and rapid antigen testing upon arrival at the Asmara. Detailed information would follow, according to the statement.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) is scheduled to fly daily between Addis Ababa and Asmara from June 1, 2021. flydubai (FZ, Dubai International) has said it will begin weekly services between Dubai and Asmara from April 14, 2021.

Eritrean Airlines (B8, Asmara) made no immediate announcement about the restart of its services. Its route to Addis Ababa was suspended last year due to the COVID-19 crisis. The carrier owns one mothballed B767-200(ER), ch-aviation fleets data reveals.

Before the pandemic, Eritrea was also served by EgyptAir (MS, Cairo International) with five weekly services from Cairo International, and Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) with three weekly flights from Istanbul Airport.