Dubai Airports, the operator of Dubai International Airport (DXB) is due to reopen its Terminal One and Concourse D on 24 June 2021. The move has been prompted by an anticipation of a surge in air travel demand within the region and indeed worldwide. These facilities were last operational on 24 March 2021, after which point, air travel was temporarily suspended, because of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world.
The CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths is optimistic that the reopening will create thousands of new jobs, given the additional Airlines commencing operations out of Terminal One. He said, “About 3,500 jobs will be created as a result of the reopening of Terminal 1 at Dubai International Airport (DXB) this week. It is going to be more jobs for Dubai. Passenger service remain very much a personal thing at DXB and we are going to hire people, bringing back handling agents. Airlines are clearly going to do that. Moving 66 airlines across to Terminal 1 means a huge amount of activity. It means we’ll need more people to manage check-in desks and help people through the process.”
Furthermore, the local economy will benefit from growth in tourism, which in turn could reignite demand for the region’s jet fuel.
Emirates Airline Preparing for a Summer Surge
Dubai’s National Airline, Emirates, anticipates that the summer season will recover virtually all of its flying network that was operational pre-pandemic. Indeed, by the end of July 2021, they expect to operate 880 weekly flights across 124 destinations, thereby recovering 90% of its route network. To put it into context, Dubai’s air passenger traffic nose dived from 86.4 million in 2019 to just 25.9 million in 2020.
Of further significance, Dubai International Airport has built a new laboratory, that will facilitate in expediting Covid-19 test results, thereby potentially allowing more free flow of passengers throughout the Airport and region.
What are your thoughts on Dubai’s optimistic plans? Let us know below.
