Dubai International (DXB) has registered a year of strong recovery and consistently robust growth in its customer base that propelled the annual passenger numbers to 66 million in 2022. The airport’s growth outpaced the annual forecast yet again in the final months of the year following an exceptionally strong fourth quarter.
Key facts and figures
DXB welcomed a total of 66,069,981 passengers during 2022, a year-on year-growth of 127 per cent. Traffic volumes were propelled by strong growth in the final quarter of the year during which the airport recorded 19,729,155 passengers, up 67 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. It was the busiest quarter since 2019. December was the busiest month of the year with 7.1 million passengers, the first time since January 2020 that DXB’s monthly traffic hit the 7 million mark.
Top destinations
India retained its position as the top destination country for DXB by passenger volume, with a total traffic of 9.8 million passengers, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.9 million passengers, and the United Kingdom with 4.6 million passengers. Other destination countries of note include Pakistan (3.7 million passengers) the US (3 million), and Russia (1.9 million), which along with Turkey (1.6 million) has recorded more than 100 per cent recovery in passenger volumes compared to 2019 levels.
DXB’s top destination cities during 2022 were London with 3 million passengers, Riyadh (2 million), Mumbai (1.9 million) and Jeddah and New Delhi both with 1.7 million passengers.
DXB is currently connected to 229 destinations across 99 countries through more than 88 international carriers.
Flights
Total flight movements at DXB totaled 96,701 during the fourth quarter bringing the annual flight movements to 343,339, a year-on-year growth of 47 per cent. The average number of passengers per flight reached 204, up 33 per cent year-on-year.
Cargo
Cargo continued to register a contraction in volumes with 420,125 tonnes recorded in the fourth quarter, down 31.7 per cent compared to 614,834 tonnes in Q4 of 2021. DXB handled 1,727,815 tonnes of cargo during 2022, a drop of 25.5 per cent resulting from the moving of all major freight operators back to Dubai World Central (DWC) and the return of pax-freighter aircraft back to passenger operations during the year.
Baggage and Waiting Times
DXB’s baggage handling system processed a total of 62.2 million bags in 2022 with a success rate of 99.8 per cent – a rate of 2.2 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, an impressive performance for the world’s busiest international hub. In terms of baggage delivery on arrival, 92 per cent of all baggage was delivered within 45 minutes* to our customers. The baggage volume in 2022 represents 86.2 per cent of the 2019 baggage volume at DXB.
The average waiting time at passport control queues was less than 13 minutes for 95.48 per cent of the arriving passengers and 96.24 per cent of passengers queued for less than 5 minutes at departure passport control. The average queue times at security check on departures was less than 3 minutes for 96.38 per cent of total passengers.
Welcoming DXB’s stellar performance as the perfect high note on which to start the new year, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said, “We knew it was the year when growth would return to the air travel sector in a big way, but the surge was much stronger than anticipated and we had to do our best to turn that challenge into an opportunity. Thanks to the planning, preparation, and all the collaboration and hard work of our people across the airport community, we were ready to meet the challenge of rapid recovery in customer numbers while delivering significant improvement in our service quality across the board.”
Commenting on the outlook for 2023, Griffiths said, “Given its dynamism and global impact, there is never a dull year for the aviation sector and 2023 will be no exception. With DXB forecast to welcome 78 million passengers this year, and Dubai hosting major international events including the Dubai Airshow and COP28, it will be another year of new challenges and opportunities and we are ready for them. Our top priority in 2023 will be our customers, our people, and sustainability – three key areas that are crucial to our aspirations and goals as the world’s busiest global hub, a preferred employer, and as a key player and trend-setter in the world’s aviation industry.”
