UAE: Dubai Airport Reopens

Dubai International Airport reopened a runway on Thursday after authorities cleared the wreckage of an Emirates Boeing 777 that crashed and burned the previous day, the airport's chief executive said.

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.

One of the airport's two runways had already re-opened. Re-opening the second brings the airport closer to normal operations.

"We are facilitating as fast as we can the capacity for airlines to ensure a quick recovery," Griffiths said.

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.

Emirates, which is based at Dubai International, said it expected disruptions to its flights to continue for the next 36 hours. It did not elaborate.

All 300 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the Emirates plane after the crash, which occurred when the crew apparently tried to abort a landing. One firefighter was killed on the ground.

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.

The UAE Civil Aviation Authority said on Thursday that an investigation into the incident would include the countries involved in the manufacture of the plane and its engines - the US and Britain - along with the relevant companies Boeing, Rolls Royce and Emirates Airline.

Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport expanded 7 per cent from a year earlier to 34.65 million passengers in the first five months of this year.

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.

UAE:Emirates,Dubai Health Authority To Promote Medical Tourism

Al Qatami (L) and Sheikh Ahmed (R) sign the MoU

Emirates and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to promote medical tourism in Dubai and fulfill the emirate’s goal of attracting 500,000 medical tourists by the year 2020.

HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group and Humaid Mohammad Al Qatami, chairman of the board and director-general of DHA signed the MOU on the sidelines of the Arab Travel Market on Tuesday.

The aim of the MoU is to cultivate Emirates' international status and widespread travel routes to fulfil the medical tourism project, Dubai Health Experience (DXH), launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum , Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council.

As part of the MoU, Emirates packages and tickets can be booked through DXH’s website www.dxh.ae, which is a first-of-its-kind website that has all the relevant medical tourism information including: medical tourism packages, tickets and hotel booking etc. under a single portal.

The medical services include but are not limited to surgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology, dental, treatments and specialised tests, to name a few.

Sheikh Ahmed said: “Emirates remains committed to government and private sector initiatives that promote Dubai as a global hub for trade, tourism and sport. We are pleased to be working with DHA to make Dubai the preferred destination for medical tourism through our extensive global network covering the six continents."

Al Qatami said Emirates is DHA’s strategic partner, adding that the airline is one of the main supporters of the authority’s objective to revitalise medical tourism and make Dubai the preferred destination for medical tourism.

He also said that the MoU reflects the unlimited support of Sheikh Ahmed towards the authorities’ projects and objectives stressing that Sheikh Ahmad’s support is considered an important incentive to the success of the project.