UAE. Giving an update on the first half of 2018, Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths has confirmed that more retail and food & beverage outlets are planned for Dubai International.
“By the end of the year we will have introduced more and more outlets to broaden the experience available to our customers and most importantly bring in the revenue that’s necessary to maintain the successful development of our airport,” he said.
He also revealed that for 45 days from April 2019 one of Dubai International’s two runways will be closed for a full redevelopment programme, which will lead to a number of flight reductions.
[Click on the video above to view Paul Griffith’s update on the first half of 2018.]
Some of these flights will be transferred to Dubai World Central, which is in the final stages of an expansion programme which will see its capacity increased to 26 million passengers a year. Some 24 new boarding gates and seven new baggage reclaim carousels will be added, while the number of check-in desks will increase to 104.
Dubai Airports recently announced a partnership with China’s largest tour operator C-Trip. “It’s a very important step on our journey to become more China friendly,’’ said Griffiths.
He also reported that in the last year at Dubai International an interactive digital display, called the My Dubai Experience, was added to Concourse A by Dubai Tourism. The display allows travellers to get “a virtual glimpse” of Dubai. Also this year, the airport opened a new operations control centre which uses 90 different data systems to support customer service.
“2018 promises to be yet another exciting year for Dubai Airports,” Griffiths concluded.
