Covid passports ‘inevitable’, says Dubai Airports chief

Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths has said that Covid passports are the only way to restart mass foreign travel.

Speaking to BBC, the chief executive supported the documents, saying that they are ‘inevitable’. “I don’t think there is an alternative,” he said.

“I think the problem is not the vaccine passport and its discrimination. It’s the need to roll things out and have a proper globally equitable vaccine programme.”

By the end of Q1 2021, Dubai International (DXB) served 63 per cent of the destinations in 89 per cent of the countries on 74 per cent of the airlines compared to before the pandemic. Meanwhile, its passenger volumes for the first quarter this year reached 5.75 million.

India retained its position as DXB’s top destination country with traffic for Q1 reaching 1,384,448, with Pakistan coming in second with 454,294 customers, followed by Bangladesh (221,027 customers) and Russia (196,890 customers).

The top three cities were New Delhi (262,035 customers), Dhaka (178,593) closely followed by Addis Ababa (169,715 customers).

“I just don’t think the world can survive without that mobility for much longer, certainly socially and economically, but you can understand why countries around the world are being very conservative. The last thing any politician wants is a surge of infection on their turf,” Griffiths noted.

“We were able to get into a position where we could cover all of our costs with about 20% of our throughput, which is where we are at the moment.”