Dubai International Airport (DXB) says it is on track for a record-breaking year in 2024, with an anticipated 91.8 million passengers expected to pass through the airport by the end of the year.
The chief executive of Dubai Airports says 2024 had proven to be the “very best” for DXB despite a historic flood that brought the airport to a standstill in April and resulted in a major operational meltdown for hometown carrier Emirates.
A 10-hour rainstorm deluged Dubai with at least 150mm of rain in just one hour in the early hours of April 11, bringing the city to a virtual standstill as highways disappeared under flood water.
The airfield at Dubai International turned into a lake, grounding flights and leaving tens of thousands of passengers trapped in the airport terminals.
Emirates struggled to recover from the disruption, initially preventing passengers in Dubai from checking in for flights before extending the check-in ban to anyone who planned to transit through DXB.
By April 19, Emirates was still trying to clear the backlog of transit passengers who had been stranded in the airport for days on end – Sir Tim Clark, the long-serving president of the Dubai-based airline, later apologized for the mess and admitted that Emirates must do better when faced with extreme weather events in the future.
Despite the disruption, Dubai International handled 68.6 million passengers in the first nine months of 2024, and CEO Paul Griffiths expects a further 23.2 million passengers in the final quarter of the year
“What’s particularly noteworthy is that DXB is seeing more direct traffic than ever before — a shift from the long-standing trend where transfer traffic dominated,” Griffiths commented.
“This reflects Dubai’s evolution into not just a premier tourist destination but also a globally attractive place to live, work, and do business, further underscored by the city’s booming real estate market and its rising appeal as a destination for top talent.”
India remains the top destination market from DXB, closely followed by Saudi Arabia and then the United Kingdom. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, London retains its position as the top city destination from DXB, followed by Riyadh and Mumbai.
Just weeks after the flooding debacle, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that his government had approved the final designs for a new passenger airport located 23 miles southwest of downtown Dubai that will be able to handle as many as 260 million passengers annually.
The new passenger terminals at Dubai World Central Airport (DWC) will have a staggering 400 aircraft gates and will come at a cost of 128 billion Dirhams (US $34.87 billion).
If construction goes as planned, operations will be transferred from DXB to DWC within the next 10 years, with an initial capacity of 150 million passengers per year.
