Emirates forecasts more than 450,000 passengers will travel through Dubai International Airport (DXB) in July 2021 amid increased air travel demand over summer period.
In a statement, the Dubai-based air carrier said the high passenger traffic is expected to start on June 30, 2021, and run through July 12, 2021. The busiest days, according to Emirates, will take place during the “next two weekends”, on July 2-3 and July 9-10, forecasting 1,600 flights over this period.
According to Emirates, close to 100,000 travelers will be coming to its Dubai hub, exclusively on Emirates flights to start their summer holidays.
Emirates has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in June 2021, the Dubai-based airline reported massive losses amid the ongoing crisis that curtailed international air travel demand. Emirates posted a loss of AED 20.3 billion ($5.5 billion) down from AED 1.1 billion ($288 million) profit in the previous year.
Due to the ongoing crisis, Emirates phased out 14 older aircraft from its fleet comprised of nine Boeing 777-300ERs and five Airbus A380 aircraft, leaving its total number of aircraft at 264 with an average age standing at 7.9 years, as per planespotters.net data.
In order to tackle the cost problem, Emirates Group received a capital injection of AED 11.3 billion ($3.1 billion) from the UAE government.