Dubai International Airport gears up for holiday travel rush

Dubai Airports said that it was expecting more than 7 million passengers to pass through the airport this month as the festive season swings into gear.

Dubai Airports is taking on extra staff to deal with the expected hordes and would employ new passenger flow monitoring technology to enable it to move staff to busy areas. Dubai Airport Authority / AFP
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Dubai International Airport is gearing up for what could be its busiest week of the year as millions make their way home or abroad for the festive season.

Dubai Airports, the company which operates Dubai International Airport, said that it was expecting more than 7 million passengers to pass through the airport this month as the festive season swings into gear.

“Nearly a quarter of a million passengers will be passing through the airport daily during the seasonal peak,” said Anita Mehra, a senior vice president at Dubai Airports.

The company said that it was expecting near-record numbers this Christmas with peak traffic anticipated on December 16, 17 and 22.

Last December 7,053,243 passengers flocked through Dubai International – making it the airport’s second busiest month for 2015.

This year the number looks set to be even higher with the airport recording total passenger numbers of 69.3 million for the year to the end of October – a 6.8 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier.

Dubai Airports said that it was taking on extra staff to deal with the expected hordes and would employ new passenger flow monitoring technology to enable it to move staff to busy areas.

It added that the airport’s new smart gate service, which allows the use of Emirates ID cards upon arrival and departure, will reduce immigration transaction times to 10-15 seconds.

Emirates Airline said that it expected to transport a total of 307,000 passengers between Wednesday and Saturday, with its busiest day expected to be Friday.

Dubai International is the world’s busiest airport for international passengers with traffic exceeding 78 million passengers in 2015.

lbarnard@thenational.ae

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