Dubai Airport passenger numbers exceed forecasts, but still lower than pre-pandemic

Dubai Airport passenger numbers exceed forecasts, but still lower than pre-pandemic

Dubai International Airport remains the world’s busiest as 2021 passenger numbers exceeded forecasts, although traffic may not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, the airport’s chief executive told Bloomberg.

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The airport clocked 29.1 million passengers in 2021, exceeding forecasts by more than half a million, Dubai Airports said in a statement.

Current forecasts indicate that traffic through the airport could almost double by reaching 55.1 million by in 2022.

Demand, however, is still considerably lower than it was in 2019, when 86.4 million travelers passed through the airport.

Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths told Bloomberg that it may take 18 months beyond year-end to reach 2019 levels.

Griffiths said demand this year could surprise, with strong booking trends including “very encouraging” summer sales suggesting that Dubai Airports estimates maybe “a little bit conservative.”

The CEO, in a statement, credited the surge in passenger numbers partly to the fact that Dubai Airport returned to full capacity in November.

He also said that the Dubai Airshow 2021 and Expo 2020 Dubai were major draws for international travelers.

A new in-house airport laboratory for fast-track processing COVID-19 PCR test samples was also a factor, he said.

A record