Dubai Airport expects full recovery next year amid travel surge: CEO Paul Griffiths

Dubai Airport expects full recovery next year amid travel surge: CEO Paul Griffiths

Dubai Airports expects a full recovery in passenger traffic to come a year earlier than expected amid a resurgence in travel, according to the chief executive officer of the Gulf hub.

Customer traffic at Dubai International Airport is expected to hit 62.4 million in 2022, Paul Griffiths said in a Bloomberg Television interview. That compares with an earlier estimate of 58.3 million people traveling through the Gulf hub.

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Dubai attracted 86.4 million travelers in 2019, reflecting the dominance of home carrier Emirates on globe-spanning long-haul routes. The airport had previously forecast a return to those levels by 2024, but Griffiths said a first-half surge that saw passenger numbers jump 162 percent year-on-year meant a recovery would come sooner.

“It’s an enormous surge,” he told Bloomberg TV. “As the transfer market recovers, which is the last remaining market to come back, we’re going to see sustained growth throughout the rest of the year,” Griffiths said.

“Hopefully during the course of next year we will be back to the pre-pandemic levels that we enjoyed before.”

While airports across western Europe have been plagued by staffing shortfalls and union turmoil for many weeks, prompting moves