Saturday, Jul 01, 2017

Dubai: A total of 618, 000 passengers travelled through the Dubai airports during Eid Al Fitr holidays, a top official said on Saturday.

Major-General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, director-general of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA), said the department also processed some 16,110 residency transactions during the Eid holidays.

“Our service centre at Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport was working around the clock to ease the procedures and transactions for passengers and residents,” Maj-Gen Al Merri said.

The centre renewed 171 Emirati passports during Eid to help families travel smoothly.

Meanwhile, the GDRFA announced that 9,530 people have registered in the new service called Smart UAE Wallet which helps the passengers who depart from Dubai International Airport by using their smart phones at the smart gates instead of their passports.

“Since we launched the new service of the smartphones, we had 9,530 people registered. Around 1,000 of them used the app to cross the smart gates during Eid holidays and this helped to ease rush at passport control counters,” Maj-Gen Al Merri added.

For now, the UAE Wallet App can be used at Terminal 3. People can download the app from Apple and Android stores and save their personal ID and passport details to cross the smart gates within nine to 15 seconds. Meanwhile, Maj-Gen Al Merri said Amer service received 4,515 calls on 8005111 during the holidays. “We are keen to spread happiness especially among travellers by providing best services. We had put in place a plan to keep a smooth flow of passengers who were more during Eid holidays to avoid any delays at our gates,” he added.

By Ali Al Shouk Staff Reporter

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