Dubai International Airport, busiest for global travel, sees half-year record of 44.9M passengers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai International Airport saw a record 44.9 million travelers pass through its cavernous terminals in the first half of this year, putting the world’s busiest airport for international travel back on track to beat its all-time record as aviation booms after the coronavirus pandemic.

The results released on Wednesday follow a record-breaking annual profit for the long-haul carrier Emirates that calls the airport known as DXB home — and comes as Dubai plans to move operations to a planned, nearly $35 billion airfield in the next decade.

Meanwhile, a real-estate boom and its highest-ever tourism numbers have made the city-state in the United Arab Emirates no longer just a layover but a destination for even more travelers.

“The record-breaking performance in the first half of this year highlights our strategic importance as a global aviation hub,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said in a statement. “Dubai is at the forefront of global cities when it comes to attracting talent, businesses, and tourists from around the world — and we are proud to be the gateway to the city.”

The airport had 89.1 million passengers in 2018, its busiest-ever year before the pandemic. Sixty-six million passengers passed through in 2022 and 86.9 million passengers in 2023.

“We have a very optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year, and we are on track to break records with 91.8 million annual guests forecasted for 2024,” Griffiths added.

DXB long has served as a barometer for the aviation industry worldwide and the wider economic health of Dubai. The emirate and the airline rebounded quickly from the pandemic by pushing forward with tourism even as some countries more slowly came out of their pandemic crouch.

That has seen whiplash at an airport briefly shut during the pandemic to one now straining from the traffic. In April, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced plans to move DXB’s operations to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, an airfield in the city’s southern reaches whose development had been delayed by the repercussions of the sheikhdom’s 2009 economic crisis.

Plans call for a curving, white terminal reminiscent of the traditional Bedouin tents of the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, officials say. The airport now has just two runways, like Dubai International Airport.

Al Maktoum International Airport, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from DXB, opened in 2010 with one terminal. It served as a parking lot for Emirates’ double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft during the pandemic and slowly has come back to life with cargo and private flights in the time since. It also hosts the biennial Dubai Air Show and has a vast, empty desert in which to expand.

The announcement by Sheikh Mohammed noted Dubai’s plans to expand further south. Already, its nearby Expo 2020 site has been offering homes for buyers.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.