Emirates expects more than 450,000 passengers in early July to come through Dubai National Airport, despite warnings against travelling to the UAE.
The airline, which mostly operates its customers through Terminal 3, anticipates these numbers to surge over the 2-3 July weekend, the 9-10 July weekend and until 12 July.
“In addition, close to 100,000 passengers will be arriving into Dubai on Emirates flights to start their summer holidays during that same period,” Emirates said in a statement.
However, as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is currently dealing with a surge of COVID-19 infections, the airline has detailed safety measures to manage the soaring passenger numbers.
“All Emirates and DXB touchpoints are fully prepared to manage the increase in passenger traffic, with measures and protocols in place designed to enhance safety as customers move through Terminal 3.”
The airport and airline have imposed hefty safety measures in preparation for the surge, including “contactless technologies” and “biometric journeys”.
Customers can expect shorter waiting times with digital verification of documents prior to arriving.
All travelling from Dubai and London, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, New York JFK, Moscow, Frankfurt, Charles De Gaulle and Amsterdam can use the IATA Travel Pass to manage documentation and passengers’ latest PCR vaccination results.
The airline plans on rolling out the Travel Pass across its global network over the summer.
Dubai International Airport is home to the Emirates Airline, which carried 58 million passengers before the pandemic, but lost more than 80 per cent of its previous year’s travellers, only carrying 6.6 million.
The year of 2020 saw the airline report a net loss of AED$20.3 billion (US$5.5 billion), despite the $2 billion in government aid provided by Dubai.
However, a few weeks ago, Dubai International Airport announced it anticipates 28 million passengers to travel in the coming months until the end of the year, proposing an estimate of 90 per cent of the 260 destinations restored, as it began operations to reopen its Terminal 1.
Despite confidence in revived travel numbers, the surge of COVID-19 infections is concerning, especially as the Beta and Delta variant dominates the UAE.
The Gulf Arab state has seen over 2,000 infections a day in the last few weeks, with a population of around 9 million. On Saturday, UAE recorded its highest single day of fatalities, as 10 people died from the virus.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued to the UK a Level 4 “do not travel” to the UAE, the highest-level warning possible.
