On Thursday 4 August, Dubai International Airport's chief executive said that a runway had been reopened after authorities cleared the wreckage of an Emirates Boeing 777 that crashed and burnt the previous day.
Paul Griffiths told a press conference that work continued to restore normal traffic volumes at the airport, the world's busiest hub for international travel, reports Reuters.
One of the airport's two runways had already re-opened. Re-opening the second brings the airport closer to normal operations.
Dubai Airport said in a statement that 237 inbound and departing flights were cancelled after the crash and another 44 flights coming into the country were diverted to nearby airports. About 19,000 passengers were affected, it said.
Flights at Dubai International were completely suspended for over five hours on Wednesday, authorities said - a blow to Dubai's economy, which depends heavily on tourists from around the world and the emirate's role as a waystation for travel between Asia and Europe.
After Dubai International Airport closed its airspace for about an hour because of unauthorised drone activity, the local Khaleej Times quoted Michael Rudolph, head of aviation regulations and safety at the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, as saying earlier this year that for every minute the airport stayed shut, the Dubai economy lost about $1 million.
Source: in.reuters.com
