Dubai's state airport operator on Sunday said it would reopen Terminal 1 at Dubai International Airport on Thursday after a 15-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Over 40 international airlines will now gradually shift operations to the reopened terminal, the airport's main facility for foreign airlines, from terminal 2 and 3, it said.

Terminal 1, where the airport's Concourse D is located, has an annual passenger capacity of 18 million passengers. The airport, a major international transit hub, is capable of handling up to 100 million passengers a year.

The announcement comes after Dubai's government on Saturday said it was lifting a ban on those who had been in Nigeria or South Africa in the past 14 days, and direct flights from there would resume from Wednesday.

Flights from India could also resume and Indians who hold United Arab Emirates residents visas could enter as long as they have received two doses of UAE-approved coronavirus vaccines.

A ban on non-residents who had visited India in the past two weeks would continue to be enforced, however.

Dubai requires most arrivals to test negative for coronavirus prior to travelling to the Middle East tourism hub which reopened to foreign visitors last July. Passengers are also typically tested on arrival too.

Arrivals from India would have to quarantine at a designated facility until they receive their test results, which would be expected within a day, Dubai's media office said.