Staff Report
Dubai, UAE
Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport (DXB) has reached 95.6 percent of the pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2019 with passenger numbers exceeding 21.26 million in the first quarter of the year.
This is 55.8 percent higher than the corresponding period of last year.
This follows Dubai International Airport’s strong showing last year during which the airport clocked 66 million passengers to retain its position as the world’s busiest international hub for the ninth year.
March was the busiest month in the first quarter with 7.3 million passengers, which is also the highest monthly traffic since January 2020 when DXB recorded 7.8m passengers.
DXB is currently connected to 234 destinations across 99 countries via 89 scheduled international carriers.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, “DXB’s performance in the first quarter has exceeded our expectations and reflects the strong growth in demand that we are continuing to see across our key markets.
“With important developments in the international travel sector such as the further easing of travel protocols in China, and the upcoming local annual seasonal peaks and festive holidays, our outlook for the second quarter and the remainder of the year remains bullish.
“Accordingly, we have had to readjust our traffic forecast for 2023 upward to 83.6 million passengers, which will put DXB within striking distance to our 2019 annual traffic.”
India remained DXB’s top destination country with passenger traffic reaching 3 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (1.6 million), the UK (1.4 million) and Pakistan (1 million passengers). Other countries of note include the United States with 840,000 passengers, Russia with 729,000 and 628,000 passengers from Germany.
The list of top cities by passenger numbers was led by London with 890,000 passengers followed by Mumbai with 645,000, and 641,000 from Jeddah closely followed by Riyadh being source of 604,000 passengers.
Total flight movements during Q1 reached 100,840, a year-on-year increase of 23 percent and 1.6 percent higher than Q1 of 2019 when DXB recorded a total of 99,197 movements.
With load factors exceeding 2019 levels throughout the first quarter and reaching 80 percent in March 2023, the passenger per aircraft movement grew 19.5 percent to reach 220.
Freight Movement
Despite an increase in passenger traffic, the cargo volume contracted 23 percent to 400,015 tonnes during the first quarter of 2023, compared to 519,555 tonnes in the first quarter of 2022.
An aviation expert said, the freight movement in the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 went up significantly due to the Expo 2020, when Dubai catered to 24 million tourists.
“Since we do not have any mega events this year, the freight movement came down to the natural level, in addition to the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war that has dampened the global supply chain movement,” said the expert, requesting anonymity.
