Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, saw a record 92.3 million passengers pass through its terminals in 2024, officials announced Thursday.
The result cements Dubai's bounce-back from the coronavirus pandemic, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 for the first time. Today, the airport feels like it's bursting at the seams with aircraft movements and crowds moving through its terminals, The AP reported.
Authorities plan to move operations in 2032 to the city-state's second airport after a nearly $35 billion upgrade.
Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, first announced the new passenger figure on X. The state-owned airport is home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, which powers the network of state-owned and state-linked businesses known as "Dubai Inc."
“Dubai is the airport of the world ... and a new world in the aviation sector,” Sheikh Mohammed wrote.
Speaking with The Associated Press, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths pointed to the fact that the airport had served more than 700 million passengers over the last decade — closing in on twice the population of the United States.
The 2024 result “is not only a record for us, of course, but as the No. 1 airport in the world, it’s a new world record for international passengers through any airport in the world," Griffiths said. "And the great thing is that’s with two runways on a very limited geographical footprint, which hasn’t really changed at all.”
In 2023, the airport, known as DXB, had 86.9 million passengers. Its 2019, traffic was 86.3 million passengers. It had 89.1 million passengers in 2018 — its previous busiest-ever year before the pandemic, while 66 million passengers passed through in 2022.
In 2024, India remained the top destination market for DXB, with 12 million passengers. Saudi Arabia followed with 7.6 million and the United Kingdom at 6.2 million. DXB and Al Maktoum International Airport, known as DWC, serve 106 airlines flying to 272 cities in 107 countries across the world.
