Dubai International Airport has recorded a record high number of passengers since 2020, more than doubling year-over-year in Q1, 2022.
The state-run Dubai Airports Corporation, which operates the airport, said in a statement that it handled 13.6 million passengers in the January-March period, compared to 5.7 million a year earlier. This is a strong indication of the recovery of passenger traffic and great momentum at the world’s busiest international airport, recording the highest rate of passenger traffic for the second consecutive quarter in which passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport exceeded the 10 million mark.
The airport, which is the hub of Emirates airline’s operations, is expected to receive 58 million passengers this year.
Dubai International Airport connects to more than 193 global destinations in 92 countries through 73 international airlines.
Top international travel
India retained its position as the first destination for Dubai International Airport in terms of passenger volume, with a total number of passengers reaching 1.6 million passengers, followed by Saudi with about 1.1 million passengers, then Pakistan with 997,000 passengers, and the United Kingdom with 934,000 passengers.
As for the top three destinations from cities, London came first with 617 thousand passengers, followed by Riyadh with 517 thousand passengers, then Jeddah with 337 thousand passengers, and finally Istanbul with 324,000 passengers.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of the Corporation, said that the strong performance witnessed by Dubai International Airport over the past period “represents a great achievement and an important milestone in its history, as it reflects Dubai’s proactive strategy and its tireless efforts to restore air traffic and restore channels of communication between countries, as well as its global leadership in leading the aviation industry the world to become a role model as it emerges from an unprecedented global crisis.”
He added, “Despite the continuous recovery of passenger traffic, driven by several factors that led to exceeding pre-pandemic rates, the return of travel with the opening of many major markets contributed significantly to achieving a recovery in passenger traffic, with an estimated increase of 60 percent over the indicators of 2019.”
Griffiths added that there are promising expectations for the current year in light of the strong performance indicators so far, showing annual passenger traffic will reach 58.3 million passengers, significantly exceeding the initial outlooks.
