Dubai International Airport (DXB) continues to be the world’s busiest airport by international passenger numbers for the eighth consecutive year after clocking 29.1 million in annual traffic in 2021.
The airport’s annual traffic exceeded forecasts for the year by more than half a million passengers, on the back of a strong last quarter.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, “Despite unprecedented turmoil affecting millions of people all over the world, we overcame many serious obstacles to the operation of the world’s largest international hub and provided smooth, comfortable and safe travel for millions of people travelling through DXB.”
Current forecasts indicate that traffic through DXB could reach 55.1m by the end of 2022, but Griffiths acknowledges that if current trends continue, that figure could be exceeded by a significant margin.
The 2021 numbers were propelled by a robust growth in the final three months of the year during which DXB recorded 11,794,046 passengers, 77 percent more than in the previous quarter. It was the busiest quarter since Q1 2020, and the first time since the start of the pandemic that DXB’s quarterly traffic surpassed the 10 million mark. December was the busiest month of the year with 4.5 million passengers.
India retained its position as the top destination country for DXB by passenger volume, with passenger traffic for 2021 totaling 4.2m, followed by Pakistan with 1.8m, Saudi Arabia with 1.5m, and the United Kingdom with 1.2m passengers.
Other destination countries of note include the US (1.1m passengers), Egypt (1m) and the Turkey (945,000 passengers).
DXB’s top destination cities during 2021 were Istanbul with 916,000 passengers, Cairo (905,000), London (814,000) and New Delhi (791,000 passengers). DXB is currently connected to 198 destinations across 93 countries through 84 international carriers – significantly more than in 2019 before the pandemic.
Cargo continued its strong performance throughout the year finishing with 614,834 tons of cargo in the fourth quarter (7.5 percent) taking the annual freight volume in 2021 up by 20 percent to 2,319,185 tons.