Group departure day: hotel door to terminal.

The departure morning is a run sheet

On arrival day the airport sets the pace. On departure day the hotel does. Fifteen, thirty or fifty people have to come down, check out, load bags and get on the right vehicle in the right order. If any one of those steps drifts, the whole chain slips and nobody notices until the desks.

So treat the morning as a short run sheet with one owner, the group leader. Our Dubai airport transfer page has a short section on departures. This page goes further, for groups of 15 and more.

Four numbers to lock the night before

• The head count. Not the booking, the people. Count again in the lobby the evening before and write the number down.
• The bag count. Checked bags, plus anything oversized such as golf bags, instruments or boxes. Those take the space of several suitcases.
• The terminal, for every flight in the group. Read it off the ticket, not from the airline name.
• The time the coach is at the door. Work it back from the flight, as the next section shows, and tell every traveller a time ten minutes earlier than the driver’s.

Send all four to us. The pick-up time you agree goes on your written quote.

Working back from the flight: an example

This is a plan, not a quote. Your airline’s advice always comes first, and we do not know when your airline closes check-in. Ask it, and write the answer down.

A group of 36 stays in Downtown and flies at 11:30. Three hours before is 08:30 at the terminal. Forty people at the same desks take longer than a couple, so treat that as the latest, not the target. The route page for DXB to Downtown Dubai gives 30 to 45 minutes in the weekday morning peak, roughly 7 am to 9:30 am.

Move the whole chain if your airline asks for more than three hours. The Palm needs more road, around 35 to 45 minutes outside the rush hours and an hour or more in the weekday peaks, as our DXB to Palm Jumeirah page explains. Our guide to how far Dubai Airport is from your hotel area has the other districts.

Getting the bags out of the hotel first

The lobby is the slowest part of the morning. Three habits make it faster.

• Settle the bills the day before, so check-out is a key drop and not a queue at the desk.
• Ask the hotel to bring the bags down before the group gathers. Loading then happens while people finish.
• Tag the bags in one colour of strap or ribbon, so the leader can count them at a glance.

Remind everyone to keep passports, medicines and valuables in hand luggage. Once the bags go into the hold, they stay there until the terminal.

A 50-seater cannot always get under a hotel canopy, and some resort entrances sit behind a gate. If the coach has to stop in a side bay, the driver tells the leader before anyone steps off, and the bags go in in one go. Tell us the hotel’s full name and area, and we check the entrance before the day.

Which terminal, and why groups split

DXB has three terminals. Terminal 3 is the home of Emirates. Terminal 1 handles most other international airlines. Terminal 2 is used mainly by flydubai and some regional carriers, and sits across the airfield, around 15 to 20 minutes by road from Terminals 1 and 3. Some flydubai flights use Terminal 3, so the ticket decides, not the airline.

A group on two airlines may need two drop-off points. Emirates First and Business passengers at Terminal 3 have their own check-in area, so tell the driver who sits where. Send every flight number and we confirm the terminals before the drivers set off. If the group is split across hotels, our guide for tour operators and DMCs shows how the order of stops is written up.

One vehicle or several

Seats are the easy part. Bags are what changes the plan. Bags below are medium suitcases.

A group of 32 with a suitcase each belongs in the 50-seater, even with empty seats. Between 55 and 100 people we use two coaches, with two drivers and two loading points. When bags are heavy, a separate luggage van that leaves with the group can beat a second coach. Our guide to how many suitcases fit in each vehicle lists every size.

At the terminal

The driver drops the group at the departures level of the terminal on your quote. We have no printed rule for where each coach may stop there, so tell us the terminal and we confirm the drop point in your written quote. The leader walks the group in as one party and checks the bag count again at the kerb.

The desks are the slow part. A single traveller clears check-in quickly. A group does not, so treat the airline’s three hours as the minimum. Ask the airline for its closing time, and send us the answer so the coach time is built from it.

Flight late at night? Instead of paying for a late check-out, book the vehicle for the day. The luggage stays on board while the group spends a last afternoon in the city. For flights between about 1 am and 6 am, read night and early flights from DXB.

What to send us

• The departure flights, with terminals and times.
• The head count and the checked bag count, with anything oversized.
• The hotel names and who sleeps in each.
• The group leader’s name and a mobile number that works in the UAE.

Use the booking page. A fixed written quote comes back, usually within the hour, and nothing is charged until you accept.

Related: Dubai airport transfer for groups · Night and early flights from DXB for groups · Big group arrival at DXB · Dubai Airport to Downtown Dubai · Dubai Airport to Palm Jumeirah · 50-Seater Coach · Group transfers for tour operators · Get a quote

Keep reading

• Dubai Airport to your hotel: Metro, bus, taxi rank, app ride, hotel transfer or a driver in arrivals: how to reach your hotel from DXB, area by area.
• Loading time for group luggage at the airport: A method to estimate the minutes between meeting the driver and leaving the airport with 20 to 70 people, with stated assumptions and six worked groups.
• Night and early flights from DXB for groups: Leaving Dubai on a 1 am to 6 am flight with a group: how to work back to the hotel pick-up, who is awake, and what happens to check-out and the bags.
• Dubai airport transfer for groups: Vans, Sprinters, mini coaches and 50-seat coaches for groups landing at DXB or DWC, with the luggage and the split flights planned.
• DXB Terminals 1, 2 and 3 for group leaders: Which DXB terminal each airline uses, where a driver can and cannot wait, the Metro limit, and the drive from each terminal to the Marina, JBR, Palm and Downtown.
• How far is Dubai Airport from your hotel area: One table of the drive from Dubai International (and Al Maktoum) to the main hotel areas, with peak-hour margins and what the Metro does.