Dubai Airport CEO warns of tough year ahead

The Chief Executive of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths, yesterday warned of another tough year for Dubai International Airport after the number of passengers passing through its terminals decreased by 70 per cent in 2020, Reuters reported.

“We are planning for it to be a tough year. That’s undoubtedly the case … anyone that doesn’t think it’s going to be a tough year has clearly not been observing what’s been going on,” Griffiths told the news wire.

Griffiths, who has been running Dubai Airports since 2007, said he was optimistic that demand for travel will increase with the acceleration of vaccination operations around the world. However, he warned that the airport  will take “a long time” before it returns to pre-pandemic figures, stressing that intercontinental travel will remain a challenge.

Countries, he said, should move to a “secure risk management” strategy instead of “risk avoidance” strategy where tough measures have been focused on eliminating the virus.

Last year, the airport welcomed 25.9 million passengers, mostly during the first quarter of the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of flights handled by the airport in 2020 decreased by 51.4 per cent to 183,993, while the volume of shipments decreased by 23.2 per cent to 1.9 million tonnes.

Aviation executives and analysts expect the sector to take years to recover, while restrictions on international travel will continue to hamper global demand.

To date there has been no unified global approach to dealing with the deadly pandemic that has killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide.

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