Fasten your seatbelts: Dubai airports welcome 87 million travellers!

World’s busiest airport? Check!

Highest number of travellers in a year? Check!

Trumping every record in the world? Check!

There’s quite literally nothing on this planet stopping Dubai from soaring to new heights, be it becoming the world’s most popular hub for real estate, rising deals of non-oil trades or now - becoming the world’s busiest airport, ever.

So, what’s new on the agenda this week, you might ask?

In newly released reports, Dubai reached new heights, welcoming 87 million new travellers in 2023 - the highest since pre-pandemic levels!

And here’s everything you need to know…

Dubai Airports crossed pre-pandemic highs for passenger traffic:

Dubai International Airport had an impressive year in 2023, bouncing back from the challenges of the pandemic.

Get this, the airport welcomed around 87 million travellers, which was a significant increase of 31.7% compared to 2022. This exceeded its forecast and even topped the passenger count from 2019 - so we’re making history here!

At the airport, we saw a total of 416,405 flights come in and out in 2023, which is the highest on record at DXB. Global aviation hub? Check!

The numbers don’t lie...

Passenger traffic in the last quarter of 2023 rose by 13.8% in total to 22.4 million, with December being the busiest month - no surprise there! Although, during the third quarter the airport had the highest level of traffic since 2019, with 23 million travellers passing through.

Looking ahead, Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports shared that Dubai International Airport expects to receive 88.8 million passengers in 2024, and expects to put it on track to approach its previous record of 89.1 million passengers in 2018.

A rising global hotspot!

In case you didn’t know - Dubai International Airport is currently connected to 262 destinations across 104 countries, and is served by 102 international carriers! Yup - pretty much a global hotspot.

Despite challenges such as inflation and geopolitical tensions across the region, travel demand to Dubai has only remained strong, just like the demand for real estate! Thanks to a series of global events being hosted in the last quarter of 2023, the airport only attracted a rich influx of international visitors.

How impressive is that?

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Want to keep up with other economical records?

Click here to read more about Dubai’s aerial taxis - set to take off in 2026!