Dubai International Airport said the latest figures showed that the traffic volume during H1 2022 represents 67.5% of the its pre-pandemic passenger traffic during the same period in 2019.
The airport screened 27.9 million passengers in the first half of the year despite a significant reduction in capacity resulting from the 45-day closure of its northern runway in May-June for a major refurbishment project.
Maintaining its growth recovery for the ninth successive quarter since the start of the pandemic, the airport recorded 14.2 million passengers in Q2 2022, a year-on-year jump of 190.6%.
The hub welcomed a total of 27,884,888 passengers in the first half of the year, up 161.9% compared to H1 2021.
India remained the airport’s top destination country by passenger numbers with traffic for H1 2022 reaching four million passengers – driven primarily by top city destinations such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad.
Saudi Arabia came second on the list with two million passengers, followed closely by the United Kingdom with 1.9 million passengers. Other country destinations of note include Pakistan (1.7 million passengers), and the United States (1.4 million passengers).
The top three cities were London with 1.3 million passengers, Riyadh 910,000 passengers, and Mumbai 726,000 passengers.
CEO of Dubai Airports Paul Griffiths said the airport’s recovery from the impact of the global pandemic has been spectacular, and that position has been strengthened during 2022, particularly during Q2 2022.
“Not only has Dubai Airports been successful in managing the recovery, but customer service quality has been maintained throughout.”
The airport gearing up to help ease transit travel for World Cup supporters ahead of the tournament starting in November, Griffiths affirmed.
The first World Cup ever held in a Middle Eastern country is set to kick off in Qatar on November 20, and will last until December 18.
Gulf states have agreed to ease administrative procedures for fans in transit, in particular through the United Arab Emirates.
“We are actually putting together some immigration procedures, which actually should make that transition between the two countries a lot easier,” Dubai Airports chief Paul Griffiths told AFP.
He said online check-in will mean normal procedures can be bypassed “and then you can get in and out very quickly.”
Without specifying figures, Griffiths said there would be quite a number of flights every day during the World Cup, ferrying fans to and from Doha, the Qatari capital, following requests by several airlines.
