Emirates expects busy December as travelers return for holidays

Emirates expects more than 200,000 passengers to travel through its Dubai hub during the festive season, a rare piece of good news for the the world’s largest long-haul carrier in a year severely impacted by the coronavirus.

The airline’s busiest day will be on Dec. 11 and high traffic will run through Dec. 21, the Dubai-based carrier said in a statement on Tuesday. Still, the number of passengers is down from about 300,000 in the same period last year.

Emirates said more than 200,000 passengers will be arriving on its flights into Dubai—the Middle East’s trade and travel hub—for the holidays, compared with more than twice as many last year.

The airline has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic because its business model is built around the biggest category of jets ferrying passengers between all corners of the globe. Long-haul travel is widely expected by the industry to be the slowest to recover from the crisis as passengers shy away from lengthy journeys and virus hotspots.