Need to know: Dubai International Airport runway closure
Dubai International Airport is closing one of its two runways for 45 days from April 16…
Dubai International Airport (DXB) will close its southern runway from April 16 to May 30 while it undergoes extensive upgrade work.
As only one runway – the northern runway – will be in use during this time, airlines will have to scale back their operations at DXB. And that means frequent fliers could be affected. Here’s what we know so far…
Emirates
Emirates has confirmed that many of its flights will be cancelled or rescheduled.
The airline said that up to 48 Emirates aircrafts will not be utilised, with a 25 per cent reduction in the overall number of flights operated by the airline during the 45-day period.
The currently twice daily flight from Dubai to Glasgow, Scotland will be reduced to a daily flight from April 16 to May 31, though the Boeing 777-300ER service will be replaced by the double decker Emirates A380.
It’s worth checking on Emirates official website to see if your flight is affected.
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Flydubai
Low-cost carrier Flydubai has said it will operate flights to 42 of its destinations from Dubai World Central (DWC), also known as Al Maktoum International Airport. DWC is located in Jebel Ali, about 60km from DXB.
These are the Flydubai destinations that will operate from DWC: Addis Ababa, Abha, Alexandria, Amman, Ahmedabad, Bahrain, Bishek, Chennai, Chittagong, Colombo, Dammam, Delhi. Esfahan, Faisalabad, Gassim, Gizan, Ha’il, Hofuf, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Jeddah, Kabul, Karachi, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuwait, Lar, Lucknow, Mashhad, Medina, Multan (MUX), Mumbai, Muscat, Najaf, Riyadh, Shiraz, Sialkot, Tabuk and Ta’if.
While these destinations will operate from both DXB and DWC: Alexandria, Bahrain, Dammam, Jeddah, Kabul, Kathmandu, Kuwait, and Muscat.
Flights to all other Flydubai destinations will continue to operate from DXB. You can see all the flights affected on Flydubai’s offiical operational updates page.
ALSO READ: Flights to increase by 700 per cent at DWC during DXB runway closure
Did you know?
The last time DXB operated with just one runway was in 2014, due to upgrade and repair work on both its runways. That closure, which lasted for 80 days, reportedly cost Emirates an estimated $467 million (Dhs1.7 billion) in lost revenue.
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