Emirates airline is expecting to see a AED1 billion (US $272.3 million) dent in revenues due to a reduction in flights during an upcoming period of runway upgrading works at Dubai International Airport. However, the works will not affect any customers' existing bookings.
While the airline will continue to serve all of its worldwide destinations during the 80 day period, starting May 1, it has had to reduce flights to over 40 destinations, and change timings on some of its flights.
In total, Emirates will ground 20 aircraft in May, 22 in June, and 22 in July, while Dubai Airports launches a comprehensive runway upgrade project. This will see both runways at Dubai International close alternatively for resurfacing and other enhancement works.
“As the biggest operator at Dubai International accounting for about 50% of traffic, of course we have had to take the biggest hit in reducing flights,” said Emirates Airline president Tim Clark.
“There will be an impact on our revenues to the tune of approximately AED1 billion. However, we understand the need for this upgrading work to be done, and we support it wholeheartedly. It will add much-needed capacity to the airport, and having world-class infrastructure ultimately means a better experience for customers. So we have to take the long-term view and manage the short term pain.”
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These changes will not impact customers booked to fly between May and July, as the flight schedules have been planned and implemented months ahead of time. Customers or travel agents searching for flight options on Emirates will only see those flights that are available.
“Customers who have booked to fly with us, or are considering to fly with us during this time, can be assured that it is business as usual,” added Clark. “On routes where Emirates has had to reduce frequency, we have upgraded to bigger aircraft where possible to recover part of the capacity.
“We have done a lot of preparation work behind the scenes together with all airport stakeholders, to ensure that there will be as little inconvenience to our customers as possible, and we look forward to resuming our full schedule of flights in July.”
The airline will use the period to perform engineering maintenance and onboard enhancements on its grounded fleet. All Emirates passenger flights will continue to operate from Dubai International Airport (DXB) during the runway upgrading period from May 1 to July 20, while its freighter operations will move to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central on May 1 as planned.
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