Dubai, (Samajweekly) A “minor” collision was reported n Thursday on the taxiway at the Dubai International Airport between two passenger jets.
FlyDubai, the low-cost airline of Dubai, and the Bahrain-based Gulf Air were the airlines involved.
The authorities said that nobody was injured in the incident. Reportedly, the wingtip of the FlyDubai plane and the tail of the Gulf Air jet brushed each other.
An airport spokesperson said: “As a result of this, one runway was temporarily closed to allow for the incident to be swiftly managed. Operations at DXB were not impacted and the runway was reopened after two hours.”
FlyDubai said that a Boeing 737-800s, heading to Kyrgyzstan, was forced to return to the stand following the “minor incident”.
It added that the passengers took another flight, which departed six hours later.
Bahrain News Agency reported that Gulf Air confirmed “a ground incident at Dubai International Airport where one of its aircraft was impacted on the tail by an aircraft of another airline”. The airline did not identify the aircraft involved, but said it was “working to reconnect all the passengers to their final destinations”.
Dubai International Airport is one of the world’s busiest airport for international travel.
Given the Eid-al-Adha holidays, this is expected to be a very busy week for the airport.
On Wednesday, it tweeted: “This weekend DXB is predicted to be busy with arriving passengers returning to Dubai. With this in mind, we are advising anyone travelling to DXB over the next few days to allow for slight delays, organise onward travel in advance, and where possible, use public transport”.
