Dubai International Airport terminal hit by temporary power outage

Passengers tell of air-conditioning failure in DXB’s Terminal 3 but flights were unaffected

Dubai Police have launched a summer campaign to speed up airport security queues. Reuters

Dubai International Airport suffered a partial power cut on Monday leaving passengers sweating when the air conditioning shut down.

The system failure in Terminal 3 happened just after 11am and lasted half an hour, an airport spokesman said.

There were no reports of flight disruption and other terminals were unaffected.

“Dubai Airports can confirm that there was a power outage at Dubai International’s Terminal 3 at 11.04am due to a technical issue,” a spokesman said.

“Power was restored within 30 minutes of the outage with minimal impact on operations.”

Passengers said temperatures quickly rose in the busy terminal, which only handles Emirates flights.

"The air conditioning is not working, and it's so, so hot," a Canadian passenger flying to London with Emirates told The National. She arrived at the terminal at 11.30am.

The electricity soon came back on but she said it took some time for the building to cool down. “It’s still very hot,” she said an hour later.

Dubai International Airport is one of the world’s busiest, catering for about 90 million passengers per year. It serves 80 airlines flying to more than 200 cities in 94 countries.