India remains a top destination for passengers at DXB
Dubai International airport has recorded the busiest quarter since 2020, after 13.6 million passengers shuttled through its gateway in the first quarter of 2022.
Officialstatisticsfromthedubai International Airport (DXB) released Thursday indicate traffic recovery is gaining momentum at the airports, as passenger traffic surpassed the 10 million mark for the second consecutive quarter. DXB recorded 5.5 million visitors in March alone.
According to Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, the outlook for the year remains strong, with annual traffic now projected to reach 58.3 million visitors, exceeding
initial forecasts by a significant margin. However, prepandemic, a milestone of 86.4 million in yearly traffic was logged by the airport in 2019.
India remains the top destination for passenger volume, reaching 1.6 million, followed by Saudi Arabia at 1.1 million. The two are closely followed by Pakistan at 997,000 passengers, and the UK at 934,000 passengers.
The official announcement from Dubai International Airport (DXB) comes after it clocked 29.1 million in annual traffic in 2021, retaining its position as the world’s busiest international hub for eight consecutive years.
The airports’ passenger volumes rose to 13.6 million in the first quarter of 2022, up 15.7 per cent compared to 11.8 million passengers in the final quarter of 2021. By comparison, DXB recorded 5.7 million passengers in the first quarter of 2021.
The first-quarter passenger traffic is encouraging for the tourismdriven economy of Dubai, signalling that international travel has picked up considerably since the
Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedentedgloballockdownsand border closures in 2020. The global hub is connected to 193 destinations across 92 countries via 73 scheduled international carriers.
Flight movements during the first quarter totalled 81,966, an increase of 5.8 per cent compared to the last quarter of 2021, during which DXB recorded 77,475 flights. The top three cities in terms of passenger numbers were London at 617,000 passengers, Riyadh at 517,000 passengers, and Jeddah at 337,000, followed closely by Istanbul at 324,000 passengers.
“DXB’S performance over the past successive quarters is nothing short of impressive and is a direct outcome of Dubai’s clear strategy and efforts to restore international air connectivity and mobility and lead the global aviation industry out of an unprecedented crisis,” explained Griffiths. “While the recoverywasinitiallyledbypoint-to-point traffic, which continues to exceed pre-pandemic levels, the opening of internationaltravelacrossmanykey markets has enabled transfer traffic to rebound to 60 per cent of 2019 levels,” he added.