UAE. A fast and sustained revival in passenger numbers at Dubai International Airport (DXB) has seen first-half traffic surge (+161.9%) to 27.9 million. The figure is just 1.2 million short of the total achieved in the whole of 2021 and represents 67.5% of traffic recorded in pre-pandemic H1 2019.
As a result of the strong H1, Dubai Airports has readjusted its annual forecast for 2022 upwards to 62.4 million passengers.
Achieving growth for the ninth successive quarter since early in the pandemic, DXB recorded 14.2 million passengers in the second quarter, a year-on-year rise of +190.6%.
DXB noted that the encouraging numbers have been achieved despite a significant reduction in capacity resulting from the 45-day closure of its northern runway in May-June for a major refurbishment.
During the first six months of 2022, DXB hosted 154,993 flight movements, up +55.9% compared to the first half of 2021. The figure represents 87% of flight movements during the equivalent period of 2019.
India remained DXB’s top destination country with traffic for the first half reaching 4 million passengers, driven primarily by city destinations such as Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad.
Saudi Arabia was second with 2 million passengers, followed closely by the UK with 1.9 million. Other country destinations noted include Pakistan (1.7 million) and the US (1.4 million).
The top three cities were London with 1.3 million passengers, Riyadh (910,000), and Mumbai (726,000).
Dubai Airports also noted good results in terms of passenger movement through the airport in H1. These include 96% of passengers queuing for less than five minutes at departure passport control and 92% of all baggage delivered within 30 minutes of arrival at the airport.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: “DXB’s recovery from the impact of the global pandemic has been spectacular, and that position has been strengthened during 2022, particularly during the second quarter. Not only has Dubai Airports been successful in managing the recovery, but customer service quality has been maintained throughout.
“We knew at the start of the pandemic that the dramatic downturn would be followed by an equally dramatic upturn, so we were well prepared for it and using all of the business data at our disposal were able to predict the start of the recovery.”
He added: “We worked with our service partners across the airport community to be ready and prepared to deliver the consistently smooth and easy experience that our passengers have come to expect at DXB.”
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