Dubai stays world’s busiest international airport

Dubai is on track to achieve fast recovery, even as its airport has retained its position as the world’s busiest international airport with 29.1 million passengers in 2021, said Jamal al Hai, Deputy CEO of Dubai Airports.

 

Delivering the welcome address at the Airport Innovation & Development Conference at Gulf Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF) held along the 21st edition of Airport Show in Dubai, Al Hai said: “We are on the right track and Dubai proudly retained its position as the world’s busiest international airport in 2021 with 29.1 million passengers and just last week Dubai Airport announced registered its busiest quarter since 2020.”

 

Welcoming the delegates, he said Global Airport Leaders’ Forum is organised in-person after two years of pandemic, marking a new healed era of aviation.

 

“This is in fact the outcome of a successful handling of the crisis and what you see in Dubai today is the outcome of a flawless response to the pandemic achieved through a balance between protecting the health and wellbeing of the people while minimising impact on business and economy.”

 

The 9th edition of GALF opened in Dubai along with the 21st edition of Airport Show with a call to adopt new technologies that can help airlines plan more efficient routes and work with other stakeholders to help reduce the overall carbon footprint.

 

Delivering the welcome address at the Airport Innovation & Development Conference at GALF, Ibrahim Ahli, Deputy CEO of Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans), said Dubai is galloping in all economic and social sectors, attracting businesses, talents, investors and tourists in hordes. 

 

“Dubai is fast becoming the Future City of the world driven by the highest adoption of technology, relaxed regulations and reforms. All this will result in increased traffic and it underscores the need for enhancing safety, capacity and efficiency of the airspace of Dubai, where dans plays a crucial role,” he said in a speech read out by Khalid Aljabir, Senior Vice President – Operations, dans, on behalf of Ibrahim Ahli.

 

“We have proved our mettle when dans efficiently managed more than 1,338 aircraft movements daily through Dubai airports, before the Covid-19 pandemic period. dans manages the air traffic through Dubai International which ranks first in the world for international passengers since 2014 and it had handled about 1.115 billion passengers on more than 7.47 million flights since the airport started operating in 1960,” he said.

 

In his keynote address titled ‘Standardising Regulations Regionally and Globally’, Mohammed Faisal al Dossari, Senior Director, Air Navigation and Aerodromes Department, UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), said post-Covid the industry must work across all aspects of aviation to standardise regulations and spur growth. 

 

The UAE is expected to come out with draft regulations on Vertiport in the first quarter of 2023 and publish them in the fourth quarter of 2023 to be implemented in the first quarter of 2024.

 

Al Dossari said the number of GCAA registered commercial drone organisations is increasing. Up to 2022, it registered 20,000 private drone users, and 870 commercial drones, and 181 commercial drone organisations to operate drones. 

 

Future developments include Unmanned Traffic Management, Scheduled UA operations, Night Operations, Multiple Unmanned Aircraft Operations, Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Operations, Urban Air Mobility, Unmanned Aircraft Delivery, High Speed Unmanned Aircraft and High Altitude Unmanned Aircraft.

 

The 21st edition of the annual Airport Show, the world’s largest annual airport event, was opened by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, under whose patronage the Airport Show is held. – TradeArabia News Service