Dubai airport passenger traffic sees record 1Q fall

Passenger traffic at Dubai International airport fell by around 20pc in this year's first quarter, the largest year-on-year fall since operator Dubai Airports began keeping records in 2009.

Passenger traffic totalled 17.8mn, down from around 22.2mn in the first quarter of last year amid Covid-19 travel restrictions imposed by regulatory authorities in the UAE and globally.

The UAE's general civil aviation authority began suspending flights from initial coronavirus hotspots like China and Iran as early as the first week of February before imposing a full suspension of all inbound and outbound passenger flights from 25 March. Select repatriation flights from the UAE and air cargo continued to operate over this period.

The impact on air travel demand will continue to be felt until at least the end of the year, despite announcements by the UAE's two main national carriers earlier this month that they had begun operating a limited number of inbound passenger flights from a select number of cities to the UAE.

Although the size of the impact will depend on how long these suspensions last, Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said that the timing and swiftness of air traffic recovery will primarily depend on the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus.

"Until a medical solution is found, the industry will rely on bilateral agreements that enable the resumption of services" Griffiths said. "We will gradually start to see some confidence build between trusted countries where the governments have acted significantly enough and early enough to get the spread of the virus under control."

The company was currently looking at a timeframe of between 18 months and two years for air services to return fully and get back to "previous traffic levels," Griffiths said, but again stressed that this will depend on how quickly a treatment is found.

The International Air Transport Association last month forecast that Middle East and north Africa air passenger demand in 2020 will fall by 51pc from a year earlier as a result of the disruptions.

By Sarah Raffoul