Authorities hope international hub will be operating at pre-Covid levels by the end of the year
Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport is increasing by five percent daily.
And Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, director general of the general directorate of residency and foreigners affairs in Dubai, has revealed hopes are high that the international hub will be back running at full capacity by the end of this year.
Al Marri was answering a series of questions on current immigration and travel procedures and protocols for citizens and residents as part of the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO) #AskDXBOfficial initiative, which gives the public and the media a chance to ask questions to Dubai’s senior government officials.
He said: “Passenger traffic is on a daily rise, with the number of arrival and departure passengers reflecting a five percent daily increase.
“We are hoping that by the end of the year, traffic will return as it was at the start of the year. We are optimistic and are working as one team with Dubai Airports.”
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths previously revealed that the impact of Covid-19-enforced lockdown measures, border closures and travel restrictions on the city’s international airport was “rapid” and “dramatic”.
“We went from 1,100 flights on a typical day, 280,000 passengers, down to 17 flights in the space of three days,” he told a conference in Dubai earlier this year.
He said that 44,000 passengers had gone through the airport in the entire month of May, about the same “that we normally experience… in four hours”.
Last year, Dubai International Airport welcomed 86,396,757 passengers, a 3.1 percent drop from the previous year.
