DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Dubai International Airport saw an increase in passengers in the first half of 2022 as pandemic restrictions eased, and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar will further increase traffic at the city-state’s second airport, its executive director said Wednesday.
Paul Griffiths, who oversees the world’s busiest airport for international travel, told The Associated Press that the airport handled 160 percent more traffic over the past six months compared to the same period of the year past, part of an upturn in air travel around the world.
The nearly 28 million people who have traveled through the airport over the past six months represent about 70% of the airport’s pre-pandemic levels, although Dubai’s key source market, China, remains closed due to severe pandemic restrictions. Griffiths said he expects airport traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year.
“It’s a very, very welcome increase in traffic,” Griffiths said.
The first World Cup in the Middle East, he added, will send foreign soccer fans to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai World Central, or DWC. From there, they will travel daily to Qatar, a small neighbor facing hotel pressure.
“We’ve actually seen a lot of demand at DWC for presenting slots for airlines that want to operate a shuttle service,” he said. “I think the city has a lot to offer and a lot to gain from the World Cup.”
Airlines buying additional slots to fly soccer fans to the tournament from DWC include Qatar Airways, low-cost carrier FlyDubai and low-cost airline Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, he said.
Ambitious plans to turn Dubai’s southern desert airfield into an aviation mega hub, first mooted by Dubai before the 2008 global financial crisis, have fizzled out in recent years. Dubai-based long-haul carrier Emirates parked many of its double-decker Airbus A380s there during the pandemic while commercial flights were grounded.
A key East-West transit point, Dubai’s air traffic is closely watched as a barometer of the city-state’s non-oil economy. Emirates remains the linchpin of the wider empire known as “Dubai Inc,” an intertwined series of government-owned companies.
During the first half of 2022, Dubai International Airport handled almost 56% more flights than the same period in 2021, when contagious variants of the coronavirus hit the industry.
Now, in a sign of the industry’s health, Emirates said on Wednesday it would invest billions of dollars in modernizing much of its Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 fleet. At the height of the pandemic, the airline received a $4 billion government bailout.
The widespread lifting of virus restrictions has led to a rapid increase in demand for air travel, crowding downtown Dubai and causing chaos at airports around the world.
While Dubai has not seen the chaotic crowds overwhelming European hubs in recent weeks, Griffiths said the global disruptions have affected its main airport.
“Obviously it has affected growth because some of the capacity caps they’ve put in at airports like Heathrow have had an impact on our numbers,” he said.
Last month, Emirates hit out at Heathrow, rejecting its request to limit departing passengers and reduce flights to central London. Emirates later agreed to temporarily limit sales on its flights.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent Russia’s wealthiest businessmen scrambling to save their assets from what has become an ever-widening trawl net, Dubai has welcomed an influx of Russians to its villas and luxury hotels in front of the beach. The city remains one of the few remaining flight corridors outside of Moscow.
Griffiths declined to comment on Russians taking cash out of the country to Dubai, which has become the talk of the town in recent months.
But he said the flow of Russian visitors would not stop anytime soon, adding: “It is still an important source of traffic for us.”
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