Dubai Int’l Airport to Reopen Terminal 1 for First Time Since March 2020

Dubai International Airport will reopen Terminal 1 and Concourse D on June 24 for the first time since their closure in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They will reopen to “to accommodate the anticipated growth in travel demand in the coming weeks and months.”

Chairman of Dubai Airports Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said: “Dubai’s aviation sector has been at the forefront of a global campaign to restore vital international air services with the opening of quarantine-free travel corridors between the UAE and multiple countries around the world.

“This reopening is a collaborative effort of the many stakeholders involved in the operation of the world’s largest international airport and we are delighted to be able to make this important step towards the restoration of full airport operations.”

“People think it will trickle back. I don’t believe that. I believe it will be an absolute flood of demand when people get the confidence to travel again,” Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths told Reuters on Sunday.

The airport, one of the world’s busiest, could see over 40 million passengers this year if it was “really, really lucky,” Griffiths said, though it was likely to be somewhere between 24.7 million and 34.3 million.

By the autumn, 90 percent of the 260 destinations served from Dubai airport prior to the pandemic could be restored, Griffiths said, up from 63 percent today.

The airport handled 5.75 million passengers in the first quarter, a 67.8 percent fall compared to the same quarter in 2020 before the pandemic halted traffic.