Passenger traffic at Dubai’s DXB forecasted to reach 64.3 million in 2022

Dubai Airports, the operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), has upped its annual forecast for passenger traffic at DXB to 64.3 million.

The upgrade comes on the back of ‘a strong performance by the hub in the third quarter, and the prospects of a stronger surge in the offing in the final three months of 2022,’ the operator said in a statement on Tuesday.

DXB recorded an average monthly traffic of over six million during the third quarter. The hub recorded a combined passenger traffic of 18,455,938 during Q3, marking a triple digit rise. This scaled the year-to-date September traffic to 46,340,826 passengers, marking a year-on-year increase of 167.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the year-to-date traffic volume represents 72 per cent of DXB’s pre-pandemic passenger traffic during the same period in 2019.

“The growth in passenger traffic has been terrific throughout the year and continues to exceed our expectations by a margin,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

“While we are thrilled with the numbers, what really gives us immense satisfaction is how the airport community is working together like a well-oiled machine to keep raising the bar on service quality.”

India was DXB’s top country destination in terms of traffic volume, recording 6.8 million passengers in the first nine months of the year. Saudi Arabia was second with 3.4 million visitors followed by the UK (3.2 million passengers) and Pakistan (2.7 million passengers). Other notable country markets were the US and Australia with 2.2 million and 1.1 million in passenger traffic, respectively.

The top three cities by traffic were London (2 million passengers), Riyadh (1.5 million) and Mumbai (1.3 million).

DXB recorded 397,676 tonnes of freight in the third quarter, bringing the total volume for the first nine months of the year to 1,307,691 tonnes, a year on year drop of 23.3 per cent. The operator said that ‘impacted by the moving of all major freight operators from DXB back to DWC in March, cargo continued to register a softening of demand in Q3.’

Flight movements in the third quarter surged to 98,577 at DXB, propelling the number of flight movements recorded between January and September to 274,911.

With 29.1 millions passengers in annual traffic in 2021, DXB retained its rank as the world’s number one international airport for the eighth consecutive year.

Read: Dubai’s DXB welcomes 29.1 million passengers in 2021, remains world’s busiest airport