Dubai Airports, the operator of Dubai International Airport, raised its annual passenger forecast again after the Gulf hub reached pre-coronavirus quarterly traffic levels between July and September 2022.
Dubai International Airport handled 18.5 million passengers in the third quarter, more than doubling year on year, Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.
This was first time that quarterly traffic reached pre-pandemic levels since 2020, with the figure higher than the 17.8 million passengers who travelled through the airport in the first quarter of 2020 before the onset of Covid-19.
The airport recorded average monthly traffic exceeding the six million mark throughout the third quarter.
“The recovery has been steeper than expected and … our strategy of maintaining the right resources and deploying them in the right place and right time seems to have paid off,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, told The National.
“Other airports around the world that have cut deep into their resources are finding it very difficult to get back to full strength.
“We are now seeing more visitors to and from Dubai than ever before … what we have seen is significant growth from Flydubai — that has been a big driver of it, they are well over 100 per cent of their pre-pandemic passenger and flight numbers — and also international airlines are performing better than [they did] pre-pandemic.”
Dubai government safety measures, cooler weather, a growing list of tourist attractions and people’s desire to travel after two years of lockdowns are among other factors making Dubai an attractive destination for visitors, Mr Griffiths said.
The recovery at the airport, a hub for Emirates airline, continued, with strong travel demand registered during the peak summer season as international borders reopened and coronavirus restrictions eased.
The Gulf hub benefitted from running smooth operations, compared with some major European airports that were left reeling from delays that caused widespread disruption as demand roared back after the pandemic.
Source: Civil Aviation Authority – Qatar