Dubai airport welcomes 44.9 m passengers in H1 2024

Dubai: More than 44.9 million passengers moved through Dubai International Airport in the first six months of 2024, which is an 8 per cent gain on the same time last year.

What’s even more impressive is that the latest growth came about despite interruptions caused by the record rains in mid-April, which meant 1,244 flight cancellations and 61 re-routing over two days.

In fact, during the April to end June period, the Dubai airport saw 21.8 million passengers, an increase of 7.5 per cent compared to Q2-2023, and total aircraft movements were 107,000.

The DXB, home to Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates and its sister airline flydubai, reached ‘record passenger numbers due to a surge in demand from Chinese markets’, according to CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths.

Traffic from China surpassed 1 million passengers, showing an 80 per cent year-on-year growth and a 90 per cent recovery compared to 2019 figures.

In an earlier interview with Gulf News, Griffiths had said the week-long disruptions in April would not impact DXB’s passenger numbers in the long term. “We have 250,000 passengers regularly going through the airport every single day. And over the year, I don’t think this will have a significant impact.”

Passenger traffic at DXB also remains strong despite regional geopolitical tensions, leading to temporarily cancelled operations in Tel Aviv and Iran.

-B