Dubai International airport's Q1...

DXB welcomed more than 21 million passengers in Q1 2023

Traffic at Dubai International (DXB) has reached 96% of 2019 levels with passenger numbers reaching 21,256,489 in the first quarter of the year.

This follows DXB’s strong performance last year, during which the airport recorded 66 million passengers to retain its position as the world’s busiest international hub for the ninth year running.

DXB’s passenger traffic for the first three months of 2023 was up 56% compared to the first quarter of 2022, marking the first time since the fourth quarter of 2019 when average monthly traffic reached 7 million passengers.

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March 2023 was the busiest month in the first quarter with 7.3 million passengers, which is also the highest monthly traffic after January 2020 when DXB recorded 7.8 million passengers.

India remained DXB’s top destination country with passenger traffic reaching 3 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (1.6 million), the UK (1.4 million) and Pakistan (1 million).

Other countries of note include the US (840,000 passengers), Russia (729,000) and Germany (628,000), while the list of top cities by passenger numbers was led by London (890,000) Mumbai (645,000), and Jeddah (641,00), followed closely by Riyadh (604,000).

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: “DXB’s performance in the first quarter has exceeded our expectations and reflects the strong growth in demand that we are continuing to see across our key markets.

“With important developments in the international travel sector, such as the further easing of travel protocols in China, and the upcoming local annual seasonal peaks and festive holidays, our outlook for the second quarter and the remainder of the year remains bullish. Accordingly, we have had to readjust our traffic forecast for 2023 upward to 83.6 million passengers, which will put DXB within striking distance to our 2019 annual traffic.”

DXB is currently connected to 234 destinations across 99 countries via 89 scheduled international carriers.

For more information, visit www.dubaiairports.ae