Tourism & Hospitality | Thursday 6 February, 2020 2:09 am |

Released figures from Dubai Customs showed that the Passenger Operations Department dealt with 208,812 flights coming to Dubai carrying 45,622,549 items of luggage in 2019. The Department also made 337 customs and 1832 criminal seizures including 1,222 drug seizures last year. 

“Smooth traffic of passengers and luggage is a priority to us, and the Passenger Operations Department makes best use of advanced inspection systems and technologies to ensure satisfied passengers and secured airport,” said Ibrahim Kamali, Director of Passenger Operations Department. “In holiday seasons we raise the number of inspection officers at the airport to 725 with 24/7 work cycle. We have 77 screening systems in place to cover small and large cargo.”

In 2019, the Passenger Operations Department completed 74,441 customs transactions and bagged 14 awards and appreciation certificates scoring 4.27 out of 5 on the ACI’s passenger happiness meter.

“This year we target 4.5 on the meter and there will be more AI systems involved in our work to be able to cope with the increasing number of passengers, especially with the advent of expo2020. We have launched the iDeclare application, which enables passengers coming to Dubai to declare their money and personal belongings before arrival, and this reduces passengers’ waiting time from 25 minutes to only 5 minutes” Al Kamali explained. 

The Passenger Operations Department made 1,222 seizures in 2019 including 8.6kg of cocain, 4.4kg of heroin, 7.9kg of marijuana, 61,930 narcotic pills and 25 drug muling attempts.”