Dubai Airport expects to surpass pre-pandemic passenger numbers by 2023
Driven by strong growth throughout the first three quarters of the year and the forecast for an exceptional increase in passenger numbers in the final quarter, Dubai International Airport (DXB) expects annual passenger traffic to reach 86.8 million, surpassing 2019 traffic.
The airport began the second half of 2023 with its non-stop growth story, with average monthly traffic reaching 7.6 million, following pre-pandemic levels throughout the third quarter. The world’s largest hub recorded 22.9 million passengers in the third quarter, the highest quarterly traffic since 2019, bringing the year-to-date total to 64.5 million passengers, up 39.3% from the same period in 2022 and 1% above 2019.
“We are delighted, but not entirely surprised, that DXB is on the verge of passing the pre-pandemic milestone almost a year ahead of our initial forecasts. Our outlook for the remainder of this year and next remains optimistic,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
Future Outlook
The airport expects record figures to continue in the fourth quarter and into 2024. To accommodate growth and achieve the airfield’s ambition to revolutionize passenger travel, undertaking a strategic project to expand infrastructure capacity and improve operational efficiency. With a current capacity of 100 million passengers annually at DXB, the deployment of innovative technology, expansion and refurbishment of existing infrastructure, and more efficient use of its space and resources are expected to boost its capacity to 120 million.
Top destinations
With 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, India was DXB’s top destination country in terms of traffic volume, followed by Saudi Arabia, with 4.8 million passengers, and the United Kingdom (4.4 million passengers). Also of note were Pakistan, with 3.1 million passengers, the United States (2.7 million) and Russia (1.8 million).
Cargo
Cargo continued to gain momentum in the third quarter, registering a 12.3% year-on-year increase to 446,400 tons. This year’s strong performance has helped offset the double-digit contraction in cargo recorded at the end of last year. The airport recorded 1.3 million tons of cargo in the first nine months of the year, down less than 1%.
Flights
Flight movements in the third quarter increased by 5.1% to 106,000. Between January and September, DXB recorded a total of 308,000 flights, 25.2% more than in the same period last year.
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