Dubai: Dubai International is set to return to full capacity on Monday after nearly three months of runway closures.
“Dubai International’s northern runway is undergoing certification by the General Civil Aviation Authority as the final step to its reopening and returning the airport to full capacity, ending an 80-day runway refurbishment upgrade programme,” Dubai Airports said in a statement on Thursday.
The airport’s two runways were closed consecutively from May 1 resulting in a capacity cut back of 26 per cent at one of the world’s busiest airports.
The refurbishing work involved resurfacing the entire 4-kilometre long northern runway and upgrading lighting and construction of additional taxiways and rapid exist on the southern runway.
Dubai Airports said the work required 800,000 tonnes of aggregates, 11,000 airfield lighting luminaries, 1,050 kilometres of cabling, 1,750 new manholes and 8.3 kilometres of drainage piping.
Airlines adjusted their schedules in response to the reduced capacity. A number of airlines temporarily moved flights to neighbouring airports while others reduced their number of scheduled flights. Emirates, which cut back operations, estimated it would lose Dh1 billion over the 80 days due to the runway closure.
All airlines that moved operations are expected to switch back to Dubai International from July 21.
“We have committed the resources and undertaken detailed planning to ensure that the transition to full two-runway operations together with the moving of flights from DWC (Dubai World Central) to Dubai International is smoothly and successfully managed,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airprots said in a statement.
Four airlines, Wizz Air, Gulf Air, Jazeera Airways and Qatar Airways, which operated flights out of DWC before the runway closure will continue to fly out of the airport.
The number of passengers using Dubai International fell by 2.5 per cent in the first month of the runway repair period.
