Dubai International Airport handled 13 million passengers in the first seven months of 2021…reports Asian Lite News
Dubai International Airport (DXB) reclaimed the top spot as the Busiest International Airport in the World this month as capacity through the Middle East hub returned in earnest, said OAG, a global travel data provider.
Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), which occupied the top position for some time, moved into second place and Europe’s other big hubs are also catching up with Frankfurt (FRA) moving into 3rd place and London Heathrow (LHR) into 4th, it said.
There are eight European airports in the Top 10 Busiest International Airports this month. Antalya (AYT) in 9th place is up from 32nd in October 2019, and Vienna (VIE) is 10th from 22nd two years ago.
Meanwhile, Dubai International Airport handled 13 million passengers in the first seven months of 2021.
Senior Dubai officials project passenger traffic to see significant growth in the next six months on the back of Expo 2020.
“Government took strategic decisions and offered the right incentives to enable the country to overcome the effects of the pandemic and put us in the right position to lead the world’s economic recovery, and build bridges across the world to accelerate the recovery process, especially in aviation and tourism sectors,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), chairman of Dubai Airports and chairman and CEO of Emirates Group.
According to its figures, the UAE-UK route is the third busiest so far in October with more than 217,000 seats.
In fact, four of the top 10 busiest international routes start or end in Dubai, connecting Riyadh, London Heathrow, Bahrain and Jeddah with the UAE.
Only routes between Antalya in Turkey and Moscow Sheremetyevo (270,402) and between Dubai and Saudi capital Riyadh (240,938) registered more seats this month.
The recovery has been boosted by the UK’s decision to reopen the travel corridor between it and the UAE while the UAE’s conditional lifting of travel restrictions for passengers arriving from four countries in the Indian subcontinent as well as Nigeria and Uganda have also delivered.
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India continued to be DXB’s top destination country by traffic volume in the first half with passenger numbers exceeding 1.9 million, followed by Pakistan, Russia and Egypt.
Earlier this month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Middle East carriers are expected to see a very limited improvement in their financial performance from a $6.8 billion loss in 2021 to a $4.6 billion loss in 2022 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact.
It said that without large domestic markets, the region’s major carriers rely significantly on connecting traffic, especially to Asia-Pacific which has been slow to re-open to international traffic.
Globally, IATA said net industry losses are expected to reduce to $11.6 billion in 2022 after a $51.8 billion loss in 2021. Net 2020 loss estimates have been revised to $137.7 billion (from $126.4 billion). Adding these up, total industry losses in 2020-2022 are expected to reach $201 billion.