Dubai airport passenger traffic continues to rise

Passenger traffic at Dubai International airport (DXB) has staged a marked recovery, rising by 20pc last month to reach 20.7mn in January-October. Demand has been supported by the easing of travel restrictions in key global markets in recent months, as well as events such as Dubai Expo 2020 and the Dubai Air Show.

A total of 6.75mn passengers used DBX in the third quarter, up from around 4.9mn in the second quarter, according to operator Dubai Airports. It represents a dramatic improvement on the 1.3mn quarterly average recorded in the second half of last year, but third-quarter demand was still 71pc below July-September 2019.

"It's been a steady journey of recovery for DXB, and while we are still a long way from pre-pandemic levels of traffic, we are encouraged to see this significant increase in the rate of passenger growth which continues to endorse our position as the world's largest international airport," Dubai Airports' chief executive Paul Griffiths said.

"Significant market developments such as the UK's vaccination-based travel programme, the resumption of flights to several important destinations in Australasia and the relaxation of restrictions for travel between India and the USA have all contributed to an upward revision in our forecast for the year by an additional 2mn passengers to 28.7mn," he said.

Flight movements at DBX totalled 56,266 during the third quarter, boosting the total number of flights between January and September to 155,706, up by 17.1pc compared with the corresponding period in 2020. Cargo volumes at the airport totalled 581,972t in July-September, bringing the total for the first nine months of this year to 1.7mn t, up by 25.3pc from January-September 2020.

India remained the airport's top destination country with 2.8mn passengers in the third quarter, followed by Pakistan with 1mn. Egypt was third with 753,000 passengers, followed by the US and Turkey with 710,000 and 598,000, respectively. Other destinations of note include Ethiopia, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

While the aviation industry is seeing a steady improvement in demand, it is not in the clear yet, Griffiths told US TV network CNBC at the Dubai Air Show yesterday. "We are not quite out of the woods," he said. "We have room for optimism that the future, hopefully, is much brighter than the last 20 months."

But the president of Dubai's national airline Emirates, Tim Clark, told CNBC that he sees a fourth wave of Covid-19 hitting Europe and this is a concern for the airline. "We've got to look at it very carefully, because if the European markets — which have already started to open in a big way — start to go the other way, we're going to have to deal with that," he said.

By Sarah Raffoul