With record crowds expected for New Year’s celebrations, both Dubai International (DXB) and Sharjah International Airport (SHJ) published joint advisories late on 31 December warning of significant congestion from the evening of 31 December through the early hours of 1 January.
DXB projects more than 385,000 passengers will pass through its terminals during the 24-hour window. Roads around Downtown Dubai and the Palm are subject to rolling closures for fireworks displays, and Metro services will run continuously to funnel revellers and departing travellers directly into Terminal 3. Airport authorities are asking travellers to arrive four hours before departure and to complete online check-in where possible.
Sharjah Airport expects load factors above 95 percent on Air Arabia and other carriers. It recommends arriving at least three hours before flight time and highlights its city and mall check-in counters, where passengers can drop bags up to 48 hours in advance. Both airports have coordinated with immigration to open extra smart-gate lanes and manual counters.
![Dubai & Sharjah Airports Issue New Year’s Eve Alert as Passenger Volumes Spike]()
For travellers who discover their visa validity may be expiring or require a different category to accommodate unexpected schedule changes, VisaHQ can expedite UAE tourist or transit visas entirely online and monitor the process in real time. Full details on documentation, fees and typical processing times are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/.
For travel coordinators, the alert means adjusting ground-transfer schedules, issuing pre-trip communications on public-transport options, and potentially securing hotel day-rooms for crew members caught in traffic restrictions. Mobility providers managing group moves over the holiday should advise travellers to carry printed boarding passes and ensure sufficient visa validity in case of unplanned overnight stays.
While the advisory covers only a single night, its lessons extend to any major event week in the UAE: build redundancy into airport-transfer plans, exploit off-site check-in facilities and maintain real-time communication channels with travellers to avoid missed flights and downstream itinerary chaos.
DXB projects more than 385,000 passengers will pass through its terminals during the 24-hour window. Roads around Downtown Dubai and the Palm are subject to rolling closures for fireworks displays, and Metro services will run continuously to funnel revellers and departing travellers directly into Terminal 3. Airport authorities are asking travellers to arrive four hours before departure and to complete online check-in where possible.
Sharjah Airport expects load factors above 95 percent on Air Arabia and other carriers. It recommends arriving at least three hours before flight time and highlights its city and mall check-in counters, where passengers can drop bags up to 48 hours in advance. Both airports have coordinated with immigration to open extra smart-gate lanes and manual counters.
For travellers who discover their visa validity may be expiring or require a different category to accommodate unexpected schedule changes, VisaHQ can expedite UAE tourist or transit visas entirely online and monitor the process in real time. Full details on documentation, fees and typical processing times are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/.
For travel coordinators, the alert means adjusting ground-transfer schedules, issuing pre-trip communications on public-transport options, and potentially securing hotel day-rooms for crew members caught in traffic restrictions. Mobility providers managing group moves over the holiday should advise travellers to carry printed boarding passes and ensure sufficient visa validity in case of unplanned overnight stays.
While the advisory covers only a single night, its lessons extend to any major event week in the UAE: build redundancy into airport-transfer plans, exploit off-site check-in facilities and maintain real-time communication channels with travellers to avoid missed flights and downstream itinerary chaos.
