Emirates airline is preparing for a summer travel surge over the next two weekends, despite growing concern over the delta coronavirus variant responsible for more than a third of infections across the United Arab Emirates. Emirates is expecting more than 450,000 passengers to travel from, to and through Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport on over 1,600 flights in the coming days. “The busiest days for the airline will be the next two weekends, 2-3 July and 9-10 July, although high passenger traffic is expected to start today, and will run through 12 July,” Emirates said Wednesday. Close to 100,000 passengers will be arriving into Dubai on Emirates flights to start their summer vacations during that same period, the airline added. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways also moved to extend its “verified to fly” program on Wednesday. The program allows travelers to validate Covid-19 travel documents before arriving at the airport to improve passenger processing time. “We appreciate these are challenging times for travellers and this has been a key initiative to simplify our guests’ journeys as much as possible,” John Wright, Etihad’s vice president for global airports and network operations said.<br/>