Dubai airport recorded 92.3 million passengers in 2024 — CEO

A document 92.3 million passengers travelled by means of Dubai’s worldwide airport final yr, its operator stated on Thursday, extending a post-pandemic tear that exemplifies the town’s financial growth.

The determine surpassed the earlier excessive of 89.1 million in 2018, Dubai Airports stated, regardless of regional tensions brought on by the Gaza struggle and final April’s unprecedented floods that severely disrupted flights.

The United Arab Emirates metropolis, positioned between Asia, Europe, and Africa, has now been ranked because the world’s busiest worldwide air hub for a decade.

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths stated the airport was nonetheless benefiting from Dubai’s bounceback from COVID-19, when the town quickly reopened its doorways and the flag-carrying airline, Emirates, was fast to reactivate its fleet.

“We have been like a coiled spring, prepared to reply as quickly because the market recovered,” Griffiths instructed AFP in an interview.

“So we’ve been capable of get again to capability; we’ve been capable of encourage new airways, and we’ve seen double-digit progress from most sectors throughout the course of final yr on account of that.”

The commerce, tourism, and enterprise centre can also be witnessing document actual property costs and hovering inhabitants progress, spurred by the UAE’s efforts to diversify its economic system away from oil.

Greater than 1 / 4 of Dubai’s GDP in 2023—27 per cent—got here from its aviation sector, together with Emirates and Dubai Airports, based on an financial affect report revealed by the 2 state-owned entities in October.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship between the well being of the aviation sector and the well being of the town’s economic system,” Griffiths stated.

In 2023, Dubai airport’s passenger numbers outstripped pre-pandemic 2019. A document efficiency within the first half of 2024 was adopted by a powerful end with 8.2 million travellers in December, the busiest month of the yr.

– New airport ‘a game-changer’ –

Dubai is benefiting from the sluggish restoration of competitor airways and their house airports, that are being hampered by the sluggish turnaround of recent plane orders, Griffiths stated.

“For those who take lots of plane out of your fleet and also you retire entire fleets, the power to reply certainly is by the acquisition of recent plane and we all know that the availability challenges from Boeing and Airbus have been very vital,” he stated.

“For those who have been to exit and order a brand new plane now, the lead time might be the longest it’s ever been.

“And the difficulties with resuscitating present fleets and having retired plane and pilots, these are all conspiring to create a scarcity of provide, which implies that airways and airports that do have the capability are absorbing extra demand.”

In a press release, Dubai’s ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum stated the airport was focusing on 400 worldwide locations, up from 272 at present.

Dubai, now anticipating competitors from a serious new airport being in-built Riyadh, in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, can also be planning a $35 billion enlargement and relocation to Al Maktoum Worldwide, on the town’s outskirts.

“That might be a game-changer for the town and for the world as a result of it should give us the capability we’d like to have the ability to push on with our will increase within the flights and the fleet enlargements of each (price range offshoot) FlyDubai and Emirates,” Griffiths stated.

The CEO stated he was assured of breaching 100 million passengers by 2027 earlier than transferring to Al Maktoum in 2032.

The brand new airport might be scaled up in phases, with an eventual capability of about 240 million—anticipated to be the world’s largest by a distance.

AFP