Dubai International Airport reopened its Concourse A at Terminal 3 on Wednesday, taking the airport close to 100 per cent of capacity after 20 months of reduced operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Flight EK659, which arrived from Maldives, was the first to land on Concourse A since the section was closed on March 25, 2020 as part of measures taken by the UAE authorities to control the spread of coronavirus.
The airport is something of a bellwether in the emirate, both as a major employer and the gateway for tourists coming into the country.
Concourse A was the world's first purpose-built A380 terminal and serves Emirates Airline, with an annual capacity of 19 million passengers.
The area will reopen in phases over the coming weeks, to enable the airport to maintain service levels while accommodating the rush of seasonal travellers in December.
After the peak of the pandemic, Emirates Airline has restored 90 per cent of its network and is on track to reach 70 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 capacity by the end of 2021.
In October, the airline announced plans to hire 6,000 workers in six months, as travel demand rebounds.
Airport staff rehired
This week Dubai Duty Free, which runs many of the shops at the airport, also announced it was rehiring nearly 1,400 workers who were laid off during the pandemic, in several tranches.
The company laid off 2,508 people in total during the coronavirus pandemic, and 800 people resigned.
Ramesh Cidambi, the chief operating officer of Dubai Duty Free described the first half of 2020 as "catastrophic" for the business.
"We were closed in April and May of last year so the sales was zero, and in June sales were about five per cent of what we would have normally done," Mr Cidambi told Dubai Eye radio station.
"Sales started to pick up gradually during the course of last year. We finished the year with just under $3 billion and sales normally would have done about $7.4bn.
"This year now we are on target to do about $3.5bn in sales in comparison to $7.4bn in 2019."
The reopening of concourse D at Dubai International Airport spurred the rehiring of 600 people in August, and then in October, another round of recruitment for 1,000 people was announced.
Out of the 2,508 people that were laid off about 1,600 in total have been requested to come back.
Mr Cidambi suggested travellers' spending habits have changed since the pandemic.
"People are spending $10 to $15 more per person, but more importantly, more of the passengers are spending money in shops, and that is a trend that we have seen consistently from June of last year.
"That's the reason that we are able to stay 10 to 15 percentage points higher than the passenger numbers."
Last week, Dubai's airport operator raised its forecast for annual passenger traffic this year by an additional two million.
"We're projecting 57 million for next year at the moment and 28.7 million for this year," Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, told The National.
However, pre-pandemic passenger numbers are not expected to return until 2024.
Dubai Duty Free rehires workers - in pictures
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
RESULT
Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)
Kolkata win by 25 runs
Next match
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm
The five stages of early child’s play
From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:
1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.
2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.
3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.
4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.
5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
