Dubai International Airport is preparing for an extensive runway closure next month. From April 9 until June 22, the Northern runway will be out of service for refurbishment.
It will definitely have an impact on the operations of its major users, Emirates and flydubai, but by how much? DXB runway closure will hurt Emirates – again.
The last time that the Northern runway was refurbished as extensively as this year was in 2014, so Dubai Airports says it needs to be done. In 2019, the Southern runway was done, but there were significant differences between the two years. The 2014 refurbishment took a lengthy eighty days, which was reduced to 45 in 2019. The upcoming upgrade will also take 45 days again.
As for the impact of the closures, Emirates says in its 2014 annual report that it had an impact on revenues of an estimated $657 million on Emirates airline and its airport operator dnata. Passenger numbers from Dubai Airports for the May-July 2014 period show they were down from sixteen to 15.4 million, with June 8.5 percent lower compared to the same month in 2013.
In 2019, the 45-day runway closure again forced Emirates to reduce its flight schedule and capacity by 25 percent. With fewer frequencies, load factors were actually higher at 78.5 percent from 76.8 percent in 2018, but core passenger revenues were down by 3.9 percent mainly thanks to the runway closure and the effects of the first Covid-wave which happened in Emirates’ FY2019-2020. With fewer aircraft movements, cargo capacity was down ten percent. Dnata handled three percent fewer aircraft.
Dubai Airport doesn’t specify the monthly traffic figures for 2019, so the exact impact of the closure from May 24 isn’t evident. However, traffic in Q2 was 9.2 percent down to 19 million passengers compared to 2018 figures.