The airline has said its revenue will take a Dh1 billion hit due to the drop in services as it grounds up to 22 aircraft and reduces flights to 41 destinations over the 80-day period.

Emirates said in a statement on Thursday that it will ground 20 aircraft in May, 22 in June and 22 in July.

“On routes where Emirates has had to reduce frequency, we have upgraded to bigger aircraft where possible to recover part of the capacity,” stated Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline.

Customers will not be impacted by the reduced operations as Emirates had planned for runway maintenance period several months ago.The airline stated that “customers or travel agents searching for flight options on Emirates will only see those flights that are available.” 


Emirates has said it will use the ground period to conduct “upgrading projects” including engineering maintenance and on-board enhancements. Emirates accounts for roughly 50 per cent of traffic at Dubai International, making it the biggest operator at the airport.

Dubai Airports stated earlier this week that it will axe 26 per cent of flights at Dubai International during the runway repair period.