Dubai flights: Passenger traffic at DXB more than doubles to over 66 million in 2022

Dubai flights: Passenger traffic at DXB more than doubles to over 66 million in 2022

The surge in travellers was 'much stronger than anticipated', raising the airport's forecast for 2023 to 78 million

Photo Credit: Dubai Airports

Published: Tue 21 Feb 2023, 9:37 AM

Dubai International (DXB) passenger traffic more than doubled to over 66 million in 2022 on the back of a strong recovery.

Following strong results, the world’s busiest international airport raised its forecast for 2023 to 78 million.

DXB welcomed a total of 66,069,981 passengers in 2022, a year-on year-growth of 127 per cent.

Traffic volumes were propelled by strong growth in the final quarter of the year during which the airport recorded 19,729,155 passengers, up 67% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. It was the busiest quarter since 2019.

December was the busiest month of the year with 7.1 million passengers, the first time since January 2020 that DXB’s monthly traffic hit the 7 million mark.

Flights

Total flight movements at DXB totalled 96,701 during the fourth quarter, bringing the annual flight movements to 343,339, a year-on-year growth of 47 per cent. The average number of passengers per flight reached 204, up 33 per cent year-on-year.

“We knew it was the year when growth would return to the air travel sector in a big way, but the surge was much