If you’re thinking of going through Dubai – and more specifically Dubai International Airport in 2014, you might want to rethink your travel plans.
Between May and July 2014, one of the runways at Dubai International Airport is being resurfaced, with major engineering work taking place
During this period it means that flights may be cancelled, delayed, rescheduled and in some cases – diverted to the new Dubai World Central airport at Jebel Ali. Diverted traffic will include
- Air freighter traffic
- Airline Charters
- General Aviation flights
The impact of delays at Dubai cannot be underestimated as Emirates have helped turn the airport into a major hub and nexus point. Delays will impact both Origin and Destination traffic as well as connecting passenger traffic from most points of the world.
Negotiations are under way over flight reductions during the engineering period – whilst optimising capacity. Already, the consultation period for Dubai airports of schedule coordination has begun to allow an easier transition to the restricted access..
Dubai World Central Airport will be also be open at this point – which will allow it to be an overflow airport during the works if needed.
Airlines as yet haven’t posted their schedules on how these works will be affecting them – but make no mistake… it will cause some serious issues. A quick glance of this article by ACL indicates a 22% service cut for “Home Airlines” (Emirates and FlyDubai) and up to 50% cuts for airlines who operate more than once daily out of Dubai.
And that’s one hell of a cut in capacity.