Dubai International Airport marked its 59th year looking forward to an even more increased traffic, having been named the world’s busiest airport by theAirports Council International (ACI).
Dubai has grown from a relatively unknown city with a tiny airport mainly used as a refuelling stop into a globally celebrated destination for tourism, trade, finance and aviation within a matter of decades. DXB’s rise has been nothing short of phenomenal.
On the ground are thousands of Filipinos taking on jobs ranging from customer service assistants to check-in counter airline representatives and Duty Free sales staff and middle-level executives.
Putting an accurate figure on the number of Filipinos at DXB would be almost impossible. According to Lorne Riley, director of corporate communications, there are over 130,000 people working at the airport from 15 companies,
At Dubai Duty Free, Filipinos comprise the biggest number of employees at 39 percent of the total – over 2,400 of the 6,200 workforce.
Meantime, to put DXB’s growth rate into perspective, consider this: DXB will reach a major milestone of having served 1 billion passengers by the end of 2018. The airport took 51 years – from September 30, 1960 to December 31, 2011 – to reach the 500 millionth passenger but clocked the remaining 500 million in just 7 years.
Having risen to the top of the list of the world’s busiest international airports in 2014 with passenger traffic exceeding 70 million, DXB has since extended its lead over the competition to further cement its position. DXB topped 88.2 million
passengers in 2017 and is expected to welcome some 90 million customers this year.
DXB currently has capacity for 90 million passengers per annum, which is being increased to more than 118 million by 2023 under a process enhancement project.
Combined passenger traffic at Dubai’s airports (DXB+DWC) is expected to increase to 120 million by 2025.
