Dubai Airports raises annual passenger forecast
Dubai Airports has again raised its annual passenger forecast for Dubai International Airport (DXB) to 64.3 million following the hub’s strong performance in the third quarter and the prospect of even more growth in the final three months of 2022.
DXB has started the second half of the year on a strong footing, with average monthly traffic exceeding the 6 million mark in the third quarter. The hub recorded 18.5 million passengers in the third quarter, the first time since 2020 that quarterly traffic has reached pre-pandemic levels. Prior to the pandemic, DXB recorded 17.8 million passengers in the first quarter of 2020.
“Passenger growth has been terrific throughout the year and continues to exceed our expectations. We are thrilled with the numbers, but what really gives us great satisfaction is that the airport community is working together like a well-oiled machine to continue raising the bar for service quality. Our collaborative approach and service transformation initiatives have a tangible impact on the happiness of our customers, and this remains our main measure of success,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
Passenger traffic at DXB tripled to 18,455,938 in the third quarter, taking it to 46,340,826 passengers in September, up 167.6% on the previous year. Year-to-date traffic represents 72% of DXB’s pre-pandemic passenger traffic for the same period in 2019.
Influenced by the move of all major freight operators from DXB back to Dubai World Central (DWC) in March, freight traffic continued to register lower demand in the third quarter. DXB recorded 397,676 tonnes of cargo in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first nine months of 2022 to 1,307,691 tonnes, down 23.3% on the previous year.
In the third quarter, the number of air cargoes at DXB rose to 98,577, bringing the number of air cargoes recorded from January to September to 274,911, an increase of 159.5% over last year.
India was DXB’s top destination in terms of traffic, registering 6.8 million passengers in the first nine months of the year. Saudi Arabia came second with 3.4 million passengers, followed by the UK (3.2 million passengers) and Pakistan (2.7 million passengers). The other countries were the USA and Australia with 2.2m and 1.1m passengers, respectively. The top three cities in terms of traffic were London (2 million passengers), Riyadh (1.5 million) and Mumbai (1.3 million).
.@DubaiAirports has upped again its annual forecast for passenger traffic at @DXB to 64 million following a strong performance by the hub in the third quarter, and the prospects of a stronger surge in the offing in the final three months of 2022.https://t.co/eqgFxzAMhh pic.twitter.com/wjmStaeqQT
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) November 22, 2022
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