Air traffic of Dubai airport: pre-pandemic numbers reached
Added on Tue January 3rd, 2023
Dubai Airport, the world’s first in terms of international traffic, reached levels in Q3 2022 equal to the flows recorded in 2019. The trend is important for two reasons: the population is back on the move except for the Chinese, and proximity tourism appears to be an outdated concept.
According to estimates by the airport’s CEO, Paul Griffiths, 2023 will see an increase of 1 million passengers. The growth comes almost entirely from traditional business travellers such as India, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but also from transit travellers, with a proportion of 60 per cent and 40 per cent. Griffiths says that the upturn in traffic is due to the stop of anti-covid testing for foreigners and the desire to return to travel after a long period of restrictions, choosing as a destination or transit a country that represents a strategic and median connection between all the world’s holiday tourism giants: Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Chinese traffic, on the other hand, which accounts for about 15-20 per cent of the market, still seems to be on the decline.
The numbers are not exactly those of the pre-pandemic period in which 86 million passengers circulated in Dubai, but Griffiths is confident that by 2023 they will be much closer to that level. Certainly the football event in neighbouring Qatar has also had a favourable influence. Among other things, the Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) hub is finally scheduled to be commissioned in 2027. After several delays in completing the work, the long-awaited moment seems to have arrived as the old DXB airport has exceeded the 2021 traffic by 159 per cent.
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