No rift between Dubai Airports and Jazeera - CEO

The chief executive of Dubai Airports has dismissed suggestions that budget carrier Jazeera Airways dropped Dubai International as its second hub after becoming dissatisfied with the operation.

Paul Griffiths told Arabian Business on Thursday that the relationship between the Kuwaiti airline and Dubai Airports, which operates the emirate’s hub, was “very strong”.

He added: “I am not aware of any issues about the level of service they have received. I rather think this may be more to do with issues over traffic rights and also the launch of flydubai.”

Reports in Bahrain suggested the airline wanted to adopt another airport as its second hub after it failed to develop the necessary facilities and infrastructure in Dubai. Steven Greenway, Jazeera Airways’ COO was reported by Gulf Daily News as saying, “"We never really got around to placing our crew in Dubai and there were other difficulties."

The airline has since shifted its secondary operation to Bahrain International Airport, but will still fly between Kuwait and Dubai.

Griffiths said Jazeera Airways’ failed bid to extend its traffic rights and operate more services from Dubai International was a factor behind the relocation.

“I know they [Jazeera] are maintaining a very significant number of direct services between Kuwait and Dubai and we are glad we are not losing them completely, but any airline has a right to decide which airport it operates to,” he said.

“We are very pleased we are still growing our traffic base. Traffic was up 7.1 percent in May, so overall while I am sorry to lose them this is no indication of people saying Dubai is not a good place to fly, quite the contrary.

The airport chief added: “We’re in a fortunate position where we have been able to invest proactively in capacity, so there isn’t a shortage of capacity here and we operate a very liberal, open skies policy whereby we’ll take any airline that wants to fly here and attempt to allocate the best slots for them.

“We are continuing to grow our traffic, welcome new airlines and extend the number of routes and flights operated from here and we don’t have a lack of capacity or interest that’s for sure.”

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