Kuwait Times, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2021 | Muharram 8, 1443
Dubai airport passenger volumes slump 40% in first half of 2021
Emirates:
Dubai International
Airport reported yesterday a 41 percent drop in traffic in the first half of
2021, but said it anticipates “robust growth” after the easing of travel
restrictions. The number of passengers that passed through the world’s largest
airport for international travel fell to 10.6 million in the first six months of
2021, according to a statement from the Dubai Media Office.
In the first quarter of last year, the airport had
welcomed 17.8 million passengers before it temporarily suspended commercial
flights in the second quarter to curb the spread of the coronavirus. “Dubai
Airports is projecting robust growth for Dubai International in the second half
of the year,” the statement said. The emirate, one of the seven that make up the
UAE, was one of the first destinations to reopen to tourism in July last year.
It became a magnet for visitors escaping dreary
winter weather and stringent COVID-19 restrictions. The UAE launched a
vaccination campaign in December and has inoculated 72 percent of its nearly 10
million population. Last year, Dubai International Airport reported a 70 percent
drop in traffic, with the number of travellers falling from more than 86 million
in 2019 to 25.9 million in 2020.
According to the International Air Transport
Association (IATA), global air passenger traffic plunged by an unprecedented 66
percent last year owing to travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic. But
the airport is expecting better volumes in the six months to the end of December
2021. “In anticipation of the robust recovery of global air travel, we started
the second half on a high note,” Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said in
the statement.
“We have already witnessed some of our busiest
weekends of the year in July, and… the outlook for 2021 in terms of passenger
numbers looks very promising.” Tourism has long been an economic mainstay of
Dubai, which welcomed 16.7 million such visitors in 2019. The government was
last year counting on the six-month Dubai Expo 2020 global trade fair-delayed by
a year and now set to open in October-to attract millions of visitors and boost
the economy.