Dubai International Airport (DXB) handled a record high of 92 million annual passengers in 2024, up nearly 6 per cent, as the emirate gains popularity as a major global tourist destination.
The world's busiest airport by international traffic beat its November forecast of 91.9 million annual passengers in 2024, up from 87 million in 2023 and exceeding its pre-Covid record of 89.1 million in 2018.
"Dubai is the airport of the world... and a new world in the aviation sector," Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said on X on Thursday.
Dubai welcomed nearly 17 million international visitors the in the first 11 months of last year, the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism's latest data shows. Western Europe was its top source market followed by South Asia and the Gulf countries, as the emirate continues to expand its tourism sector.
Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline and the home carrier at DXB, said in November that it expects travel demand to “remain strong” for the rest of its 2024-2025 financial year, with plans to increase capacity to grow revenue as new aircraft join its fleet.
To accommodate future growth in passenger traffic, Dubai is also expanding its second hub, the Al Maktoum International Airport, with a $35 billion airport terminal that will have capacity of 260 million passengers a year once completed. That airport currently has a capacity of 32.5 million passengers − handling mainly cargo and some low-cost airlines.
Dubai is pursuing a strategy to diversify its non-oil sector with a heavy focus on tourism, aviation, hospitality, technology and trade.
For the first half of 2024, the emirate’s economy grew by 3.2 per cent to reach Dh231 billion ($62.9 billion), according to the latest available official data from the Dubai Media office in November.
