Smart move by Dubai Airports officials helps save a million lives during COVID-19 lockdown

John Benny | Staff Reporter

The role played by Emirates and flydubai in hauling urgent food supplies and medical equipment to different parts of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic is well recognised, but few know about the part played by Dubai Airports in facilitating these flights.

When the borders closed in late March 2020, the capacity of Dubai Airports was significantly reduced as most passenger aircraft were grounded.

“The demand for air cargo increased suddenly because there was a need to move essential items, so what we did was to move some of the cargo that used to be on passenger aircraft to fully dedicated cargo aircraft,” said Faisal Al Mulla, Director - Cargo Business Management at Dubai Airports.

Dubai Airports also moved some cargo freighters from Dubai World Central, which opened its doors to passenger in 2013, to Dubai International (DXB) to make it easier for businesses in Dubai and from the Northern Emirates to move essential goods.

“Thanks to that, we have recovered approximately 80 per cent of our pre-COVID cargo levels,” said Al Mulla.

“Dubai has been considered to be one of the highest PPE (personal protective equipment) moving cities around the world. We have moved these to various places such as Indian subcontinent, region, Africa, Asia, Europe, and United States,” he said.

The setting up of travel corridors and rising vaccination rates in the UAE and other countries will be key to renewing confidence in air travel, according to a Dubai Airports official.

Passengers “would rather travel without going through any restrictions or quarantine, and travel corridors allow passengers to move freely between countries, with zero testing protocols,” he said.

“We operate to 63 per cent of the destinations that we used to serve during pre-COVID days, in the first quarter,” said Majed Al Joker, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, at Dubai Airports.

“We had welcomed around 5.7 million passengers … we should not forget that all of this is because of the efforts taken by the government, especially in opening Dubai,” he said.

Vaccine alliance

In January, Dubai launched the ‘Vaccine Logistics Alliance’ to speed up distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world through the emirate. Dubai Airports is a stakeholder in the initiative, which also includes Emirates airline, DP World, and International Humanitarian City.

The agreement has “supported and helped in identifying the sources of vaccine manufacturing and moving it around the world,” said Al Mulla.

Safety push

“We also ensured that our partner airlines and crew members are protected at all times - we put procedures in place for them to be quarantine, test, and turn around quickly without affecting the operation,” said Al Mulla.

Apart from the humanitarian activities, Dubai Airports’ cargo unit had to also contend with the unprecedented spike in e-commerce demand. In the “initial months of the pandemic, a lot of people were making a lot of purchases through the likes of Amazon and that was a big part of the recovery,” said Al Mulla.

Early preparation

When the pandemic struck last year, Dubai International was better-equipped to deal with the situation than most other travel hubs.

In 2019, the airport introduced comprehensive procedures in handling and responding to communicable and infectious diseases, and this included all the stakeholders and the health authorities, Majed Al Joker said.

“When the crisis happened, we had the opportunity to implement what we already tested earlier,” Al Joker said.

By June 2021, Dubai Airports had tested around 4.3 million passengers. It has also administered vaccines to around 100,000 employees.

“Our intention was to provide a safe environment at the airport, so that travellers can feel safe (and) also, our employees can feel safe,” Al Joker said.