Dubai Airports has revised its 2023 forecast for passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB), predicting a significant increase to 86.8 million. This figure surpasses the 2019 traffic levels, marking a strong recovery from the impact of the global pandemic.
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Strong Growth in 2023
The revised forecast comes after DXB experienced strong growth throughout the first three-quarters of 2023. The airport commenced the second half of 2023 with its growth story continuing unabated, with average monthly traffic reaching 7.6 million. The world’s largest hub recorded 22.9 million passengers in Q3 – the highest quarterly traffic since 2019.
Surpassing Pre-Pandemic Levels
The total year-to-date traffic for the first nine months of the year reached 64.5 million passengers, up 39.3% compared to the same period in 2022 and 1% above 2019. "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," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
Future Outlook
Dubai Airports is expecting record-breaking numbers to continue in Q4 and 2024. To accommodate growth and to achieve the company’s ambition of revolutionizing the guest journey at DXB, Dubai Airports is undertaking a strategic project to expand infrastructure capacity while enhancing operational efficiency. With a current capacity of 100 million passengers annually at DXB, the deployment of innovative technology, expansion, and refurbishment of existing infrastructures, and more efficient use of its space and resources is expected to propel the airport’s capacity to 120 million.
Top Destinations
With 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, India was DXB’s top country destination in terms of traffic volume, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.8 million passengers, and the UK (4.4 million passengers).
Conclusion
The revised forecast reflects the resilience of the aviation sector and the strategic importance of DXB as a global hub. The strong growth in passenger traffic is a testament to the effective recovery strategies implemented by Dubai Airports and the continued appeal of Dubai as a global destination.
