Traffic growth continues to surge at Dubai International

Dubai International Airport has reported it maintained its strong growth trend in April 2014, with more than 6.1 million passengers passing through the airport. Traveller numbers rose 13.7% to 6,159,634 in April, up from 5,418,946 recorded in April 2013, and during the first four months of 2014, traffic climbed 11.9% to 24,521,454 passengers, up from 21,905,363 in the same period last year. Despite the strong growth so far this year, traffic growth is expected to taper off between May and July this year, with Dubai International reduced to a single runway as the airport’s two runways are consecutively closed for refurbishment and upgrades.

Several airlines have moved flights to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) during the refurbishment period. Dubai International says the runway upgrade programme is ahead of schedule with work on the southern runway completed yesterday, May 27 – four days ahead of the planned May 31 completion date. The additional days will be used for work on the northern runway, which is now closed for refurbishment and will remain so until July 20. Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, explains: “We are pleased to report that we were able to deliver the southern runway four days ahead of schedule thanks to the hard work and co-operation between Dubai Airports, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects and construction crews.

“Importantly, we have managed to do so without any significant inconvenience to our passengers.

“Operations at both airports have been smooth to date due largely to a robust planning process and timely coordination of day-to-day changes between all stakeholders.

“While there is still a lot of work to be done, by August we will be well placed to resume the strong growth achieved so far this year with new runways that can accommodate more aircraft while improving efficiency and service to our passengers.”

Read More

Will Emirates recover losses due to Dubai International Airport runway upgrade?

Speaking on the sidelines of a news conference announcing the airline’s annual results, Emirates’ chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum stated that the reduction in operations during the 80-day programme would help the airline retrieve losses.

Dubai-based Emirates Airline will lose Dhs1 billion in revenues due to runway upgrade work at the Dubai International Airport in 2014, but the amount will be recovered within the year, the carrier’s chairman has said.

As reported in the Albawaba Business paper he said:

“I think we will try to save on our operations, since 25 per cent of our fleet will be on the ground,” he said. “We will be able to make up the amount [Dhs1 billion] over the year by receiving more aircraft and operating new routes,” he added.

Emirates announced earlier this year that it would reduce flights to 41 destinations during the 80-day airport runway upgrade programme, which began on May 1. The airline said it would ground 20 aircraft in May, 22 in June, and 22 in July.

Overall, Dubai International Airport has said that it will reduce 26 per cent of flights during the upgrade programme. However, eight airlines have announced plans to relocate to Dubai’s new Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai World Central during the period, including flydubai, PAL Express, Jet Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, Yemenia Airlines, Equatorial Congo Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Ural Airlines.

“We are trying to complete the [upgrade] work in the shortest period of time,” said Sheikh Ahmed.

“One of the [previous] options was to the close the runway for about 10 to 12 hours everyday for 12 months, but we felt that was too long and that’s why we chose this option.

“It [the upgrade] involves major work, and after this, we will not have to do anything for the next 20 years,” he added.

Emirates reported a 43 per cent jump in its annual net profit to reach Dhs3.3 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014, thanks to higher revenues and declining fuel costs. The airline, which has 374 aircraft on order, plans to begin services to five new destinations this year.

Read More

Emirates to fly Airbus A380 to India in July

Gulf carrier Emirates plans to operate the Airbus A380 plane into Mumbai from July, taking on Singapore Airlines which is bringing the world's biggest passenger plane to India from end May. 

"Emirates plans to deploy an A380 on one of its existing daily services between Dubai to Mumbai, starting from July and is working closely with Mumbai Airport Authorities to make this deployment possible," said a spokesman for the airline. 

"In addition we have plans to upgrade existing aircraft to larger capacity Boeing 777s to Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai starting from 01 June. We will announce details shortly," he added. 

The Dubai-based carrier recently got the larger share of 11,000 weekly extra seats allowed to carriers in the two regions. The airline currently operates a total of 185 weekly flights to India. 

The Dubai-based carrier recently got the larger share of 11,000 weekly extra seats allowed to carriers in the two regions. The airline currently operates a total of 185 weekly flights to India. 

On April 7, Singapore Airlines announced it will bring the jumbo jet to India from May 30. The flights will replace those currently operated by Boeing 777 planes to the two cities. Singapore operates a total of 63 weekly flights to India. Its regional subsidiary Silk Air operates an additional 42.

Etihad's CEO James Hogan recently said the airline would at a later date bring in the aircraft to India. 

The A380 can sit 850 people in a single class configuration but usually used in a three-class offering with a seating capacity of 550-600 passengers. 

India on January 42 allowed carriers to operate the A380 to operate to four of India's airports-Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. 

A month later, it certified Mumbai as a Code-F compliant airport, which means it has a runway suitable for the A380 to land. Delhi has been Code-F certified for a few years now. 

Read More

Dubai Overtakes Heathrow as Busiest Airport for International Passengers

Dubai International became the busiest airport globally for international passengers in the first quarter, overtaking London's Heathrow, and illustrating the stellar growth of Emirates Airline in less than 30 years of operations.

Dubai's main hub, the home of Emirates, handled 18.36 million international passengers in the first quarter of the year, Dubai Airports said in a statement Monday. Heathrow saw a total 16.1 million people pass through the airport in the same period, according to statements on the airport's website.

Heathrow pipped Dubai last year to the top spot for international traffic, followed by Hong Kong and Paris, according to official figures from Airports Council International, a global trade body, which hasn't released first quarter figures yet.

Statements from all four airports show Dubai to be the busiest airport for international passengers and the fastest-growing in the first quarter, as the number of people passing through the hub increased 11.4%, compared with the same period a year earlier.

"The growth in passenger and freight traffic supports our continued investment in expanding and improving our facilities at Dubai International," said Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

Dubai International's growth is being driven by Emirates and its strategy of using widebody aircraft to connect passengers in Asia and Australasia with Europe and the U.S. via a stop in its home hub. The airline carried nearly 40 million passengers in its last fiscal year. It and lower-cost, shorter-haul carrier flydubai, which is also based at Dubai International and growing apace, helped add 28 new destinations to the airport last year.

Having started operations in 1985, Emirates now serves 142 destinations in 80 countries and territories making it one of the largest carriers in the world, and it plans to grow further. The airline has 374 jets on order with Boeing Co. and Airbus Group worth a combined $162 billion. That is on top of the 218 it currently flies, although many of those aircraft will replace some of the current fleet.

Flydubai is also soaring. It increased passengers last year by 38% to 6.8 million. To cater for forecast growth of both Emirates and flydubai, Dubai Airports has plans to increase capacity at Dubai International from 75 million currently to 100 million by 2020.

The airport may still be edged out by Heathrow for the full year, as Dubai International plans an 80-day improvement project on its two runways on May 1 that will reduce the number of flights at the airport by 24%, and impact Emirates full-year revenues by $272 million.

Read More