Dubai Airports boosted its yearly prediction for passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB) to 64.3 million, following a good third-quarter performance by the hub and the likelihood of an even larger spike in the last three months of 2022.
DXB began the second half of the year on a high note, with average monthly traffic topping 6 million throughout the third quarter. In the third quarter, the hub logged 18.5 million passengers, the first time quarterly traffic approached pre-pandemic levels since 2020. Prior to the pandemic, DXB had 17.8 million passengers in the first quarter of 2020.
“The growth in passenger traffic has been terrific throughout the year and continues to exceed our expectations by a margin. 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. Our collaborative approach and service transformation initiatives are making a tangible difference in the happiness of our customers, and that remains our ultimate measure of success,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
Key facts and figures
Passenger numbers at DXB increased by a factor of three in the third quarter to 18,455,938, bringing the year-to-date September traffic to 46,340,826 passengers, a 167.6% increase over the previous year. The YTD traffic volume is 72% of the pre-pandemic passenger traffic at DXB during the same period in 2019.
Cargo
Cargo continues to see decreasing demand in Q3 despite the relocation of all major freight operators from DXB to Dubai World Central (DWC) in March. DXB handled 397,676 tonnes of freight in the third quarter, bringing the total volume for the first nine months of 2022 to 1,307,691 tonnes, a 23.3% decrease year on year.
Flights
Flight movements at DXB increased to 98,577 in Q3, bringing the total number of flight movements reported between January and September to 274,911, an increase of 159.5% year over year.
Top destinations
In terms of traffic volume, India was DXB’s top national destination, with 6.8 million passengers in the first nine months of the year. Saudi Arabia came in second with 3.4 million passengers, followed by the United Kingdom (3.2 million passengers) and Pakistan (2.7m passengers). Other notable country markets were the United States and Australia, which had 2.2 million and 1.1 million passengers, respectively. London (2 million passengers), Riyadh (1.5 million), and Mumbai were the top three cities in terms of traffic (1.3m).
