Abu Dhabi: India has remained the top destination country with regards passenger volume for the Dubai International Airport (DXB), the Dubai Media Office (DMO) reported.
The Dubai International Airport (DXB) in the first quarter of 2022 has recorded 13.6 million passengers shuttled through its gateway.
The world’s busiest international airport recorded its busiest quarter since 2020 in the first three months of this year, up 15.7 per cent compared to 11.8m passengers in the final quarter of 2021. By comparison, DXB recorded 5.7 million passengers in the first quarter of 2021.
The DXB now expects annual traffic to reach 58.3 million, exceeding a prior forecast of 57 million.
Top destination
India remains its top destination for passenger volume reaching 1.6 million, followed by Saudi Arabia at 1.1 million. The two nations are closely followed by Pakistan, where passenger volume stands at 997,000, and the UK, with 934,000 passengers.
DXB connects to more than 193 global destinations in 92 countries through 73 international airlines, exceeding the number of destinations in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cargo
The Dubai airport handled a 519,555 tonnes of cargo during the first three months of 2022, a contraction of 15.5 per cent compared to Q4-2021) during which the hub had 614,834 tonnes of airfreight.
Flights
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 77,475 flights were recorded at DXB.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said 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.
“While the recovery was initially led by point-to-point traffic, which continues to exceed pre-pandemic levels, the opening of international travel across many key markets has enabled transfer traffic to rebound to 60 per cent of 2019 levels,” he added.
