Dubai Airport welcomes record-breaking 86.8m pax in 2023

Dubai : Dubai Airports forecast the annual passenger traffic at Dubai International to reach 86.8 million by 2023 end, surpassing the 2019 traffic benchmark. The latest projections are based on the robust growth experienced throughout the first three quarters of 2023, with a particularly notable surge expected in the final quarter.

DXB registered strong growth in traffic during the second half of 2023, with average monthly traffic reaching 7.6 million, aligning with pre-pandemic figures throughout the third quarter with a record-breaking 22.9 million passengers, the highest quarterly traffic since 2019.

Traffic for the first nine months of the year stood at 64.5 million passengers, marking a 9.3 per cent upsurge compared to the same period in 2022, and 1 per cent above 2019.

Speaking on the development, Paul Griffiths, CEO, Dubai Airports, said, "We're 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. Our outlook for the remainder of this year and the next remains optimistic. Teaming up with our strategic partners, we're ready for the challenge to continue to exceed guest satisfaction amidst the continuous surge in traffic,"

With a current capacity of 100 million passengers annually, the deployment of innovative technology, infrastructure expansion and development of existing infrastructure, as well as resource optimisation are expected to elevate DXB's capacity to 120 million.

India took the lead as DXB's top country destination, based on traffic volume, with 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.8 million passengers, and the UK, with 4.4 million passengers.

Pakistan registered 3.1 million passengers, followed by the US with 2.7 million, and Russia with 1.8 million.

London was crowned as DXB's top city by traffic volume, with 2.7 million passengers. Meanwhile, Riyadh ranked second with 1.9 million, with Mumbai following closely with 1.8 million passengers, and Jeddah with 1.7 million passengers.