Dubai Airport received 21.2 million passengers in the first quarter, with a growth of 55.8%, exceeding 95.6% of the 2019 pre-pandemic indicators.

Travel traffic through Dubai International Airport continued to achieve outstanding results during the current year, as it received about 21.2 million passengers during the first quarter, bringing it closer to the travel indicators achieved during the same period in 2019 by 95.6%. This achievement comes after the impressive results achieved by Dubai International Airport last year, with 66 million passengers, to maintain its leadership in the list of the busiest international airports in the world for the ninth year in a row.

The total number of passengers through Dubai Airport reached 21,256,489 passengers during the first three months of this year, an increase of 55.8% compared to the same quarter of 2022. This is the first time that the airport has achieved this level of performance since the fourth quarter of 2019 when it reached The average monthly passenger traffic is 7 million passengers.

Last March was the busiest month during the first quarter, with 7.3 million passengers registered, which makes it the busiest after January 2020 when the number of passengers through Dubai International Airport reached 7.8 million passengers.

It is noteworthy that Dubai Airport connects to more than 234 destinations through 89 international airlines at the level of 99 countries around the world.

Top travel destinations

India maintained its lead as the first destination for passengers traveling through Dubai International Airport, with a total of 3 million passengers during the first quarter, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came in second place with 1.6 million passengers, while the United Kingdom and Pakistan ranked third and fourth with a total of 1.4 million and 1 million passengers, respectively. The list of the most important international travel destinations also included the United States (840 thousand passengers), Russia (729 thousand passengers), and Germany (628 thousand passengers).
As for the most prominent city destinations during the first quarter of 2023, London topped the list with a total of 890 thousand passengers, followed by Mumbai with 645 thousand passengers, and Jeddah and Riyadh with about 641 thousand and 604 thousand passengers, respectively.

Shipping
Cargo services provided through Dubai International Airport recorded about 400,015 thousand tons of goods during the first quarter, recording a decline of 23% compared to the same period in 2022, which amounted to about 519,555 thousand tons.
flights
The total number of flights through Dubai Airport during the first quarter reached 100,840 flights, an annual increase of 23%, and an increase of 1.6% compared to the first quarter of 2019, at which time the airport recorded about 99,197 flights, while the load factor (seat occupancy) for the first quarter exceeded levels In 2019, it reached 80% in March 2023, and the number of passengers per aircraft increased to 220, an increase of 19.5%.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said: “Dubai International Airport’s performance in the first quarter has exceeded all expectations, reflecting the significant increase in demand that we are witnessing in our key markets. With notable developments in the international travel industry including the easing of travel protocols in China, the annual peak periods for domestic travel and the holiday season, we are very optimistic about the results of the second quarter and the rest of the year. Therefore, we have revised our forecast for passenger traffic for the year 2023 to rise to 83.6 million passengers, which puts us close to reaching the annual travel numbers recorded in 2019.