Dubai’s main airport announced Tuesday that it remains the world’s busiest for international travel, handling around 29 million passengers last year.
The data is encouraging for Dubai’s tourism-driven economy, seen as a critical link between East and West. The figure is an indication that international travel has rebounded somewhat since the coronavirus pandemic triggered unprecedented global lockdowns and border closures in 2020.
Last year’s 29.1 million travelers represent a 12% increase in registered traffic at Dubai International Airport, or DXB, compared to 2020, when it received just 26 million.
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The pavilion is open from October 1
However, last year’s number of travelers in the DXB is far from its annual historical record, of 86.4 million, in 2019.
Dubai is currently hosting the World Expo, which was delayed a year due to the pandemic. Expo 2020, which opened in October and will end at the end of March, has attracted millions of visitors, as well as heads of state, royalty and celebrities, which has helped consolidate Dubai’s reputation as a global destination. It is not clear, however, what the Expo’s total contribution has been to the nation’s economic recovery.
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Just over 70% of the number of travelers registered last year at the airport correspond to arrivals, and most likely a large part are from residents who leave and enter the emirate. Before the pandemic, around half of the total figure were transit passengers.
It is the eighth consecutive year that DXB has been proclaimed the busiest international airport, surpassing Heathrow, in London, and Hartsfield-Jackson, in Atlanta, although the latter is one of the busiest in terms of general passenger traffic.