India remained DXB’s top destination country by passenger numbers
Despite being dogged by two days of disruption caused by a sandstorm that resulted in 44 flight cancellations and 12 diversions, Dubai International Airport (DXB) is on track to surpass its initial H2 projections.
With August's weather conditions easing, following a strong first half and projection of an even stronger second half of the year with average monthly traffic expected to reach 5.6 million passengers, Dubai Airports has adjusted its annual forecast for 2022 upwards to 62.4 million passengers.
A steady surge of growth throughout the Q2 pushed Dubai International’s half-yearly traffic figures 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 during May and June, due to 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 191%.
The hub welcomed a total of 27,884,888 passengers in the first half of the year, up 162% compared to H1 2021. The traffic volume represents 68% of DXB’s pre-pandemic passenger traffic during the same period in 2019.
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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 arrivals from city destinations 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 destinations of note include Pakistan (1.7 million passengers), and the US (1.4 million passengers).
By city alone, the top three destinations were London with 1.3 million passengers, Riyadh with 910,000 passengers and Mumbai with 726,000 passengers
Flights
During the first six months of 2022, DXB handled a total of 154,993 flight movements, up 56% compared to the first half of 2021. The figure represents 87% of the pre-pandemic flight movements at DXB during the first half of 2019.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: "DXB’s recovery from the impact of the global pandemic has been spectacular, and that position has been strengthened during 2022, particularly during the second quarter.
"Not only has Dubai Airports been successful in managing the recovery, but customer service quality has been maintained throughout. We knew at the start of the pandemic that the dramatic downturn would be followed by an equally dramatic upturn, so we were well prepared for it and using all of the business data at our disposal were able to predict the start of the recovery.
"We worked with our service partners across the airport community to be ready and prepared to deliver the consistently smooth and easy experience that our passengers have come to expect at DXB."
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Waiting Times
As a result of DXB’s investment in the latest biometric technology, Smart Gates are now speeding customers through the immigration process. Advanced operations control centres use real-time information to improve service and efficiency across all touchpoints.
Customer waiting times have also remained short despite surging traffic. During H1, 96% of passengers queued for less than five minutes at departure passport control, while the average queue times at departure security gates was less than three minutes for 97% of passengers.
For more information, visit www.dubaiairports.ae