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Flights to be cancelled, rescheduled during 45-day DXB runway closure

Dubai - Flight to certain cities of India, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and others will be operating from the DWC.

Budget carrier flydubai will operate flights to 42 cities from Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC) during Dubai International's (DXB) runway closure from April 16 to May 30.
The carrier said in a statement that flights to Alexandria, Bahrain, Dammam, Jeddah, Kabul, Kathmandu, Kuwait and Muscat will be operational from both the airports during the southern runway's upgrade for 45 days.
Flight to certain cities of India, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and others will be operating from the DWC.
The cities which will be served from Al Maktoum Airport are the Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Mumbai; and Pakistani cities of Faisalabad, Karachi, Multan and Sialkot.
Flydubai will operate from the DWC to Saudi cities of Abha, Dammam, Gassim, Gizan, Ha'il, Hofuf, Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh, Tabuk and Ta'if; and the Iranian cities of Esfahan, Lar, Mashhad and Shiraz, the airline said.
The other cities that will be catered from the DWC by flydubai are Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Amman, Bahrain, Bishkek, Chittagong, Colombo, Istanbul, Kabul, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kuwait, Muscat and Najaf.
Dubai-headquartered carrier Emirates will not have any flights operating from DWC during the runway maintenance period. Many Emirates flights will be cancelled, rescheduled or have the operating aircraft changed in order to reduce impact on passengers, it said earlier.
The carrier had said that up to 48 aircraft would not be utilised with a 25 per cent reduction in the overall number of flights operated by the airline during the 45-day period.
With several flights expected to be affected by the closure of southern runway, the authorities have put in place a host of arrangements to ensure a smooth travel for passengers. Passengers will be shuttled free of cost between DXB and DWC through an express bus services during the closure period from April 16 to May 30.
Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, had said it's "fairly certain" that the six-week runway work will end up impacting several thousands of flights.
"Although DXB will effectively be without 50 per cent of its runways, the actual reduction in passenger flights will only be 32 per cent, thanks to an optimised schedule that will see the northern runway used to 96 per cent of its capacity. Due to the deployment of larger aircrafts by some airlines during the closure period, the number of seats will only decrease by 26 per cent," the Dubai Airports had said. "If the DWC's additional capacity is also included, the flight reduction will be just 10 per cent and seat reduction just 11 per cent."
A flydubai spokesperson said the carrier has been in touch passengers whose booking were impacted by the runway closure.
"We advise all passengers to arrive at the check-in desks two to three hours prior to their flight departure time. We encourage all passengers arriving into Dubai to check their airport of arrival and to remind anyone picking them up that they might be arriving at the DWC," the spokesperson said.
Air India flights
A total of eight Air India and Air India Express flights will be operating to and from the Sharjah International Airport during the closure period. Air India flights to Mumbai, Chennai, Visakhapatnam/Hyderabad and Bangalore/Goa will be affected. Air India Express flights to Mangalore (two separate flights), Delhi and Kochi will also move to the Sharjah airport.
Emirates flights
Dubai-headquartered carrier Emirates will not have any flights operating from the DWC during the runway maintenance period. Many Emirates flights will be cancelled, rescheduled or have the operating aircraft changed in order to reduce impact on passengers, it had said earlier.
The carrier had said that up to 48 aircraft would not be utilised, with a 25 per cent reduction in the overall number of flights operated by the airline during the 45-day period. With several flights expected to be affected by the closure of southern runway, the authorities have put in place a host of arrangements to ensure a smooth travel for passengers.
Passengers will be shuttled free of cost between DXB and DWC through an express bus services during the closure period from April 16 to May 30. Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, had said it's "fairly certain" that the six-week runway work will end up impacting several thousands of flights.
"Although DXB will effectively be without 50 per cent of its runways, the actual reduction in passenger flights will only be 32 per cent, thanks to an optimised schedule that will see the northern runway used to 96 per cent of its capacity. Due to the deployment of larger aircraft by some airlines during the closure period, the number of seats will only decrease by 26 per cent," the Dubai Airports had said. "If the DWC's additional capacity is also included, the flight reduction will be just 10 per cent and seat reduction just 11 per cent."
Runway closure period: April 16 to May 30
>32% reduction in passenger flights
>26% reduction in seats
>42: flydubai flights to be operated from DWC
>8: AI, AI Express flights to move to Sharjah airport
>25%: reduction in Emirates flights
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com