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India, Pakistan lead Dubai airport passenger traffic recovery

Dubai - DXB records 10.6m passengers in H1, sees better H2.

Dubai airport passenger traffic fell 40 per cent in the first half of 2021 to 10.6 million but it forecasted a robust growth in the second half as passenger traffic is likely to pick up from key source markets such as UK, India and Pakistan following the recent easing of travel restrictions.

Dubai International also retained its crown of the world’s busiest airport during the first half.

India continued to be Dubai International’s (DXB) top destination country by traffic volume with passenger numbers exceeding 1.9 million. Pakistan was second with 700,074 customers, followed by Russia (406,209) and Egypt (401,361). Other destination countries of note include Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the US. The top three cities by traffic were Addis Ababa (354,804), followed by Cairo (345,886) and Moscow (344,175).

According to the latest figures issued by Airports Council International (ACI), DXB remains the world’s busiest airport for international passengers after retaining the title for the seventh consecutive year for annual traffic in 2020. DXB holds a significant lead over other international airports and has nearly twice the passenger traffic of the next busiest global hub in the Middle East.

Dubai airports passenger volumes in the second quarter totalled 4.9 million, taking the half-yearly figure for the year to 10.6 million, a year-on-year contraction of 40.9 per cent. DXB is currently serving 68 per cent of the destinations in 94 per cent of the countries on 70 per cent of the airlines compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Robust H2

Dubai Airports projected robust growth for DXB in the second half of the year after the airport clocked 10.6 million passengers in the first six months of 2021 despite travel restrictions affecting its key source markets throughout the second quarter.

The UAE allowed residents stranded in Asian and African countries to return under certain conditions such as a rapid PCR test four hours before the departure. In addition, the UK also moved the UAE from the “red list” that required all travellers to quarantine for 10 days.

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Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said all of those South Asian markets are incredibly important to Dubai, they’re a very important transit opportunity, of course, as people go to all parts of northern Europe. “It’s very important we get that traffic flows back,” he told AP.

“In anticipation of the robust recovery of global air travel, we started the second half on a high note by re-opening Terminal 1 and Concourse D – the home terminal for our 60 international carriers, after 15 months of hibernation to accommodate the seasonal rush of travellers over the summer holidays. This was essential to facilitate the continued expansion of the route networks of our home base carriers Emirates and flydubai, whose joint network currently spanning 168 destinations continues to grow,” he said.

“With major international events such as the Dubai Expo 2020 and Dubai Airshow 2021 lined up for the months ahead, the outlook for 2021 in terms of passenger numbers looks very promising,” he said.

Griffiths added that the UK’s recent decision to move the UAE to the ‘Amber list’ and the UAE’s conditional lifting of travel restrictions for passengers arriving from four countries in the Indian subcontinent as well as Nigeria and Uganda will significantly boost DXB’s traffic.

DXB recorded 571,568 tonnes of freight in the second quarter, propelling the first half volumes to 1.1 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 27.7 per cent. It recorded a total of 99,392 flight movements during the first half, a marginal year on year increase of 0.9 per cent due to a low base resulting from the impact of the partial suspension of operations from March 25 to July 7 in 2020.

-- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com