Most of the airlines that bring Dubai's visitors from Europe do not fly here again until the last week of October. British Airways and Cathay Pacific are back on the 25th, and Singapore Airlines, Finnair and ITA all come back a day before that. Air Canada is away until the middle of next January, though Lufthansa is back in Dubai on 13 September, well ahead of the rest.

Air France is among the few European carriers already flying again, so most of what lands this month comes from the Gulf and South Asia. Emirates is flying to 140 places in 72 countries, or 97 per cent of the network it had before, and Qatar Airways is back to about 85 per cent of its own. Stock and shifts planned around the return of European visitors now have a date to work to, and that date is the end of October.

Dubai has committed AED 1.161 billion to rebuilding Al Meydan Street, and the work runs to the end of 2028. The Roads and Transport Authority has awarded two contracts covering 17 kilometres of road and 3.7 kilometres of bridges, lifting the corridor's north to south capacity by 18 per cent. The finished route is meant to cut the drive from Al Manama Street up to Umm Suqeim Street from 30 minutes to 10.

The corridor runs past Dubai Hills, Nad Al Sheba, District One and Al Barari, a catchment the authority puts at more than 500,000 residents. The larger of the two deals covers 14 kilometres and a stacked junction at Al Marabea' Street, built to carry 14,400 vehicles an hour both ways. No start date and no detail on lane closures have been given, so what the work does to access before 2028 is not yet known.

The middle of the day returns to outdoor work across the UAE on 15 September, and the summer rota goes with it. The annual midday break for outdoor workers ends on that date, closing the 22nd consecutive year of the Occupational Heat Stress Prevention Policy. The policy runs through the hottest months to protect people working outdoors, and its end marks the country's move away from the peak summer schedule.

Dubai's Mallathon closes on the same date, so a second change to the trading week lands on 15 September as well. Since 15 June the programme has turned shopping malls into air-conditioned walking and running tracks, and in its second year it passed 100,000 participants and more than 220 million steps. Rotas and staffing built around the summer restriction hold until 15 September and stop applying the day after.