Strong second quarter propels DXB’s H1 traffic to 27.9m passengers

A steady surge of growth throughout the second quarter has propelled Dubai International’s (DXB) half yearly traffic to 27.9 million passengers, just 1.2 million shy of the airport’s total annual traffic last year. DXB achieved the milestone despite a significant reduction in capacity resulting from the 45-day closure of its northern runway in May-June for a major refurbishment project.

Key Figures

Maintaining its growth recovery for the ninth successive quarter since the start of the pandemic, DXB recorded 14.2 million passengers in the second quarter of 2022, a year-on-year jump of 190.6%. The hub welcomed a total of 27,884,888 passengers in the first half of the year, up 161.9% compared to H1 2021. The traffic volume represents 67.5% of DXB’s pre-pandemic passenger traffic during the same period in 2019.

Top Destinations

India remained DXB’s top destination country by passenger numbers with traffic for the first half reaching 4 million passengers – driven primarily by top city destinations such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad. Saudi Arabia was second on the list with 2 million passengers, followed closely by the United Kingdom with 1.9 million passengers. Other country destinations of note include Pakistan (1.7 million passengers), and the U.S. (1.4 million passengers).

The top three cities were London with 1.3 million passengers, Riyadh (910,000 passengers), and Mumbai (726,000 passengers).