DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — In the first half of this year, Dubai International Airport saw a new record 44.9 million travelers pass through its terminals. This puts the world’s busiest airport for international travel on track to surpass its previous record again amid the boom in aviation following the coronavirus pandemic.
The results released on Wednesday follow a record annual profit by long-haul airline Emirates, which calls the airport – known as DXB – its home base. The results come as Dubai plans to move its operations to a nearly $35 billion new airfield over the next decade.
Meanwhile, the city-state in the United Arab Emirates has become not only a stopover but also a destination for even more travelers due to a real estate boom and the highest tourism numbers ever.
“Before the pandemic, 60% of people using the airport were actually transiting to other cities and countries. Now it’s 60% coming into the city and 40% transiting,” Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, told the Associated Press. “This is obviously very good because it means that traffic into the city is very dynamic and lively,” he added.
The airport counted 89.1 million passengers in 2018, the busiest year before the pandemic. In 2022, the number was 66 million and in 2023, 86.9 million passengers.
“We are on track to forecast 91.8 million passengers for the remainder of the year, which is another record for us,” Griffiths added.
DXB has long served as a barometer for the global aviation industry and Dubai’s overall economic health. The UAE and the airline recovered quickly from the pandemic by driving tourism, even as some countries were slower to emerge from their pandemic crises.
In the first half of the year, most travelers from India passed through the DXB terminals, followed by Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
The number of passengers arriving from China rose significantly to around one million, an increase of 80% compared to the same period last year. However, the level is still below pre-crisis levels.
That has caused whiplash, going from an airport that was briefly closed during the pandemic to one that is now overwhelmed by traffic. In April, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced plans to move operations from DXB to Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) at Dubai World Central, an airfield in the south of the city whose development had been delayed by the impact of the sheikhdom’s economic crisis in 2009.
The aim of the Al Maktoum International expansion “is to make the airport there capable of handling around 260 million passengers at full capacity. At DXB, of course, we are limited by the land area available,” Griffiths said. “We probably have another 5 to 10 years of growth ahead of us at DXB, but after that we need growth in phase two of the DWC.”
Plans call for a curved, white terminal reminiscent of the traditional Bedouin tents of the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will have five parallel runways and 400 gates, officials say. Currently, the airport, like Dubai International Airport, has only two runways.
Al Maktoum International Airport, about 45 kilometers from DXB, opened with one terminal in 2010. During the pandemic, it served as a parking lot for Emirates’ double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft. But since then, it has slowly come back to life, offering cargo and private flights. It also hosts the Dubai Air Show every two years and has a huge, empty desert for the airport to expand into.
Sheikh Mohammed’s announcement hinted at Dubai’s plans to expand further south, with homes already on offer for buyers at the nearby Expo 2020 site.
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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.
