Normal operational capacity to resume at Dubai Airports within 24 hours: Official

Dubai Airports will need 24 hours to reach normal operational capacity, Chief Operating Officer Majed Al-Joker said, while noting that operations were expected to reach 60-70 percent by the end of the day Thursday.

Al-Joker said that operations have gradually returned to normal this morning with the resumption of work at Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 “but we expected things to go back to normal with the next 24 hours.”

“We expect the operating capacity to reach 60-70 percent by the end of day on Thursday and we expect to reach 100 percent within the next 24 hours,” he said In an interview .

UAE was hit earlier this week by unprecedented rainfall. The Gulf country witnessed the largest amount of rainfall in its modern history over a 24-hour period on Tuesday, marking the highest since climatic data recording began in 1949.

It caused widespread disruption across the country.

Al-Joker said that the record rainfall and the closure of the roads as a result “without any doubt greatly affected the traffic of arriving and departing passengers.”

He said that cooperation and coordination were ongoing with different authorities and airlines to address the issues and assist the travelers affected by the delays.

Al-Joker also confirmed that the storm did not affect Dubai Airports’ buildings and systems while noting that the taxiways were affected by the rain and not the main runway of Dubai International Airport (DXB).

When asked about an assessment of the losses incurred by the storm, Al-Joker said that their current focus was on facilitating operations and ensuring the safety of the passengers and airport workers before delving into the numbers. “We trust our ability to quickly recover from this crisis.”