Easing of travel restrictions leads to 20% upturn in traffic at DXB

Dubai Airports today revealed that passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport (DXB) has grown by almost 20% in the last four weeks to reach 20.7 million in the year to date to October.

It notes that the upturn in traffic is down to the changes in travel restrictions in key global markets in recent months which is generating renewed confidence in the prospects of international travel.

The airport is expecting the upturn to continue during the final quarter of 2021 as the combined impact of the relaxation of global restrictions on travel, the opening of Expo 2020 Dubai, the forthcoming Dubai Airshow 2021 and the attraction of Dubai as a winter holiday destination.

“It’s been a steady journey of recovery for DXB, and while we are still a long way from pre-pandemic levels of traffic, we are encouraged to see this significant increase in the rate of passenger growth which continues to endorse our position as the world’s largest international airport,” enthuses Dubai Airports CEO, Paul Griffiths.

“Our performance to date has led the global recovery in all aspects of aviation activity and the growing ability of countries around world to manage the global pandemic is allowing travel restrictions to be lifted. This has given travellers both the confidence and freedom to plan long-awaited journeys with ease.

“Significant market developments such as the UK’s vaccination-based travel programme, the resumption of flights to several important destinations in Australasia and the relaxation of restrictions for travel between India and the USA have all contributed to an upward revision in our forecast for the year by an additional 2 million passengers to 28.7 million.”

He added that it was in response to this sustained increase in demand that the final piece of aviation infrastructure at DXB that was hibernated in response to the global pandemic, Concourse A, is being prepared for reopening before the end of November 2021, putting DXB back to 100% capacity after 20 months of reduced operations.

South Asia retained its rank as DXB’s largest contributor of traffic in October, led by India (2.8 million pax) and Pakistan (1 million pax). Egypt was ranked third with 753,000 passengers, followed closely by the US (710,000 pax) and Turkey (598,000 pax).

Other destination countries of note include Ethiopia, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The top three cities by traffic were Cairo (634,000 pax), Istanbul (576,000 pax) and Addis Ababa (573,000 pax).