Dubai Airports has announced that most flights will be diverted to Dubai World Central (DWC) during the 45-day upgrade of southern runway at the Dubai International Airport (DXB).

The diversion from 16 April to 30 May means flight traffic is expected to surge as much as 700% at the DWC according to Dubai Airports, which owns and manages the operation and development of DXB.

However, the closure of southern runway at DXB will just affect 32% of the flight movements as the DXB has optimised schedule and will use 96% capacity of the northern runway.

To minimise inconvenience to passengers, airlines flying to DXB have decided to deploy bigger aircraft during the closure period. The number of seats is expected to be reduced by just 26% as a result.

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: “We’re pleased that we have managed to maintain as much choice as possible for customers.

“The most significant change for passengers during the period will be the need to confirm the airport that they travelling to or from. That said, we’re confident customers and airlines will be impressed by the speed, efficiency and convenience of Dubai’s second airport.

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“The most significant change for passengers during the period will be the need to confirm the airport that they travelling to or from.”

“It’s a great opportunity to showcase DWC’s newly expanded facilities that can now accommodate up to 26.5 million passengers annually and we’re confident that it will shine.”

It is estimated that an average of 158 passenger flights operated by two charter carriers and 16 scheduled airlines will land and take off per day at the DWC during the 45-day period.

The resurfacing of southern runway will lead to movement of over 90 construction vehicles per hour during peak times at the DBX.

Earlier, developer Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) selected UAE-based Al Naboodah Construction Group for the runway upgrade project.

Contractor will remove nearly 6,000 inset runway lights and will complete milling around 407,000m² of runway and taxiway surfaces as part of the project.

After that, it will lay 158,000 tonnes of wet-mix and 106,000 tonnes of asphalt while installing around 6,000 new LED lights, along with 245 guidance signs, and 12,000 new transformers.

Al Naboodah Construction will subsequently configure components and software so that these work seamlessly with the control tower.

Finally, the contractor will test, commission, and hand over the runway and precision landing systems back to Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects.