Abu Dhabi: Dubai International Airport (DXB) expects its annual passenger traffic to reach 86.8 million this year, exceeding pre-COVID figures.
Dubai Airports on Wednesday, November 15, revised its full-year 2023 forecasts, to 86.8 million from 85 million. In 2019, DXB recorded a footfall of 86.3 million travellers.
“We are thrilled but not entirely surprised that DXB is all set to surpass the pre-pandemic milestone well ahead of our initial projections by almost a year,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “Our outlook for the remainder of this year – and the next – remains optimistic.”
It is expected that UAE will host several global events, attracting a significant number of international visitors.
Dubai Airshow which started on Monday, November 13, the International Civil Aviation Organization Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels on Monday, November 20 and the UN climate summit COP28 on Thursday, November 30.
DXB welcomes 22.9 million passengers in Q3 2023
The world’s largest hub recorded 22.9 million passengers in the third quarter of this year – the highest quarterly traffic since 2019.
This takes the total year-to-date traffic for the first nine months of the year to 64.5 million passengers, up 39.3 percent compared to the same period in 2022 and 1 percent above 2019.
“Dubai Airports is expecting record-breaking numbers to continue in Q4 and 2024,” it said.
India remains top destination for DXB
India continued to be DXB’s top destination country with 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of 2023. Saudi Arabia follows with 4.8 million passengers, and the UK at 4.4 million passengers.
- Pakistan — 3.1 million
- US — 2.7 million
- Russia — 1.8 million
Top cities by traffic passengers
- London — 2.7 million
- Riyadh — 1.9 million
- Mumbai — 1.8 million
- Jeddah — 1.7 million
