Abandoned cars: Flyaway motorists

Dozens of cars gathering dust at Dubai International Airport offer clues to the extent of the credit crunch in the emirate, and the lifestyle the owners lived before hightailing it.

The parking lot in the departures section of Terminal 1 reveals various kinds of abandoned vehicles – 4x4s and small sedans – parked in different places.

Some have been left there for six weeks or more, accumulating parking overstay fees and fines of a few thousand dirhams.

Parking fees vary between Dh3,000 and Dh6,000 a month, according to a parking attendant.

Several weeks

About 90 vehicles have been left unclaimed for several weeks now in the three terminals of Dubai International Airport, according to the parking attendant. Two parking areas near the departure area of Terminal 1 had about 40 abandoned vehicles.

Most of the abandoned vehicles had Dubai plates, but some were registered in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, a sign that the financial crisis has also pinched people beyond Dubai.

According to Advantage, a management consulting firm, terminations reached 30,000 from October to December, 2008 across the Gulf, with many of these job losses in the UAE.

Reports say more than 3,500 people have lost their jobs in the UAE, most of them in Dubai's real estate and construction sectors.

Different vehicles

Some of the vehicles left by the absconders offer clues to their owners' tastes: Toyota FJ Cruisers, Lincolns, Mitsubishi Pajeros and high-end brands such as Mercs and BMWs. Some of the vehicles had deflated tyres.

Many displayed stickers or sunshades of real estate companies.

Most of them will probably end up under the hammer as banks recover their money by auctioning them off or selling them through car showrooms.

Meanwhile, inside a room at the base of a pedestrian bridge linking the parking lot to Terminal 1, a computer linked to the automatic parking entrance gates provides a daily tally on how long the abandoned vehicles have been there.

"In the past, five or six abandoned vehicles left for three months or more were taken to a holding area [next to the parking lot]," said a parking section staff. "But this time, there's so much more. We won't know the actual count before February, when they are due to be moved out to the holding area."

He said they wait for banks or the owners to claim them.

In addition to cars left at Terminal 1, three cars were left at Terminal 2 and 10 at Terminal 3, said a parking attendant.

There's a chance, however, the owners may have left the vehicles on long-term parking, another employee said.

A police official stated that absconders will not be allowed to return to the country until their debts are paid off.

Tale of two years

(Source: Dubai police)