Budget carrier flydubai on Wednesday said it was focusing on returning to service and has “reengineered the entire passenger journey” in line with the best practices from local and international bodies, reported Gulf News.

This comes as the UAE authorities on Monday announced that select categories of UAE citizens and residents will be permitted to travel abroad to certain destinations from June 23.

The airline has carried out an “extensive disinfection programme across all touchpoints” throughout the customer journey, it said in a statement.

“As flydubai prepares to return to the skies, passengers can rest assured about hygiene on board as the airline has a comprehensive cleaning programme in place and disinfects its aircraft every day with manufacturer-certified cleaning products,” it said.

“In the cabin, air is exchanged every two to three minutes and is sterile when it enters the cabin after passing through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters which remove more than 99.9 per cent of any particulate matter that may be present,” it said.

“Dubai, as an established centre for international aviation, has always operated to the highest international standards and the combined efforts across the industry over the last few months will allow our passengers to travel once again in a safe environment. We look forward to welcoming our passengers back on board,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer of flydubai.

The carrier has enabled 23,000 passengers to return home and flydubai’s all-cargo flights were also in operation, ensuring that essential items continued to flow with goods brought to Dubai and onwards. Between April and the beginning of June, flydubai transported 3,704,991kg on 657 flights to 35 destinations.