Dubai Airports Corporation CEO Paul Griffiths emphasized that while "Dubai Airports" takes appropriate measures to control costs, improve liquidity, facilitate cargo flights and return home for passengers, and prepare to activate facilities and services in a timely manner, the scheduled travel traffic through Dubai Airport International, and the timing and speed of eventual restoration of air traffic, depend on the speed of development of a vaccine or treatment for the Corona virus.
Griffiths said in a statement issued yesterday: "The epidemic (Covid-19) has a completely different nature from any previous crisis, in terms of its impact on supply and demand, health security and the global economy as a whole."
He added: «We are dealing with a monster that we must find a solution for, and until there is a certain level of confidence in terms of health, in which people can travel without fear of spreading the virus or infection with it, then it is likely that this situation that we find ourselves in will continue» .
Noticeable effect
Griffiths indicated that the "Covid-19" epidemic had a noticeable impact on passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport, the largest airport in the world with numbers of international travelers, during the first quarter of this year, as the number of passengers reached a total of 17.8 million passengers, a decrease of 19.8 % As a result of reduced demand and numbers of flights, in implementation of the decisions of the relevant authorities in the Emirates and the rest of the world to close the airspace.
He stated that «until a medical solution is found, the industry will depend on bilateral agreements that enable the resumption of services, as we gradually began to see some confidence being built among the most reliable countries, where governments acted satisfactorily enough, and early enough to control The spread of the virus.
Opportunities for cooperation
Griffiths added, "Given that the UAE government has taken important and early steps to control the virus, we are optimistic that there will be opportunities for cooperation and coordination with other governments, which have been equally effective, to operate air services between them." He said, "With millions in all Throughout the world who live in isolation, there is great enthusiasm to change the scene, or to visit friends and relatives, pointing out that “travel has become one of the most desirable commodities at the present time, yet the current inability to travel safely reduces this demand.”
Safe environment
Griffiths stressed that «Dubai Airports» will continue to ensure a safe and healthy airport environment, by enabling physical separation, thermal examination, and Covid-19 testing to support health authorities, and deep cleaning and sterilization, to help alleviate customer concerns about plane travel and the resumption of services Scheduled.
He explained that «in the short term, until we obtain a medical and technical solution, we will have strong measures, and while we will all have to practice physical separation in the near term, the idea of separation as a permanent part of a community’s life has negative social and economic impacts, to the point that it will not simply be Sustainable. ”
He added, "With the ingenuity of man in the medical and technological fields, the combination of the two can bring us a preliminary solution to return to the social norms that we have enjoyed for centuries."
Passenger return
"Although we are ready to resume travel, it is practically impossible to foretell any reliability about how quickly passenger traffic will return, or the time taken to return to previous levels," said Dubai Airports Corporation CEO Paul Griffiths.
He added, “We are looking for a time frame from 18 months to two years, but this depends greatly on developing an effective treatment or vaccine, and establishing bilateral arrangements between countries. So while we cannot predict how quickly or when this will happen, I am optimistic that the innate demand "When people realize that traveling again is safe, it will be very big, as the world will open again, the desire to travel will be stronger than in the past, and (Dubai airports) and the entire aviation community will be ready for this stage."