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Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths has expressed hope towards more countries to end their COVID-19 testing requirements for passengers fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The head of Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest, said that testing requirements for international travel will give way for vaccination certificates in countries across the world.
Earlier, the United Kingdom removed COVID-19 test requirement for vaccinated passengers, while Bahrain is also easing testing requirements for travellers from this month.
"I do expect across the world, the testing regime for travel will start to disappear pretty quickly and we're hopeful that there will be an announcement over the next few weeks from many different places," Paul Griffiths said.
In addition, Dubai airport is looking forward to an increase in passenger traffic this year at approximately 57 million, more than double from 29.1 million in 2021.
However, it is still far below the 86.4 million passengers the international airport welcomed and managed in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world.
Griffiths also pointed out that bookings for the next three months have been among the strongest the Dubai airport had ever seen. He further expressed hope towards achieving the 57 million target this year.
"The outlook for the future now is particularly good," he added.
Earlier, Dubai reopened its second airport, Al Maktoum International in May to welcome scheduled and commercial passenger flights for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Al Maktoum International will be managing some passenger flights that essentially operate from Dubai International as renovation works continue at the main hub. During the process, one of its two runways will be closed for 45 days.
"Airlines that operated out of the second airport before the pandemic will continue to operate flights thereafter the 45 days," Griffiths said.
SOURCE: Khaleej Times