- Sunday, November 24, 2024
Saudi Arabia with 6.7 million guests and the UK with 5.9 million guests followed the South Asian nation.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Dubai International Airport, renowned as the world’s busiest hub for international travel, declared on Monday (19) that India claimed the top position for the highest number of passengers passing through its gates.
The airport, known as DXB, revealed that its traffic reached 11.9 million guests, surpassing both its annual forecast and pre-pandemic levels.
In 2023, DXB experienced a remarkable surge in passenger numbers, totaling 86.9 million, marking a year-on-year increase of 31.7 per cent. This figure narrowly exceeded the 2019 count of 86.4 million passengers.
The growth was particularly robust in the second half of the year, during which the airport welcomed a total of 45.4 million guests. December emerged as the busiest month in the fourth quarter, with 7.8 million guests, contributing to a quarter-on-quarter growth of 13.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
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Q3 remained the quarter with the highest traffic since 2019 with 23 million guests while August, with 7.9 million guests, was the month with the highest traffic. DXB is currently connected to 262 destinations across 104 countries through 102 international carriers, according to data for 2023.
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India claimed the top spot among destination countries with traffic totalling 11.9 million guests, followed by Saudi Arabia with 6.7 million guests and the UK with 5.9 million guests.
Other country markets of note include Pakistan (4.2 million), the US (3.6 million), Russia (2.5 million), and Germany (2.5 million).
DXB processed a total of 77.5 million bags in 2023, making it the highest volume of bags managed during a calendar year at the airport.
Despite 24.6 per cent year-on-year increase in baggage volume, DXB maintained its unmatched success rate of 99.8 per cent, with only 2.4 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
More than 95 per cent of guests experienced less than seven minutes of waiting time at the departure passport control while the average waiting time at security check-in departures was less than four minutes for 97.5 per cent of guests.
According to the ACI World’s globally recognised Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme, DXB scored 4.5, the highest result achieved by the airport to date. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, said the “remarkable performance marks the successful and ahead-of-time completion of the airport’s recovery journey”.
London retained its position as DXB’s top destination with 3.7 million guests, followed by Riyadh with 2.6 million guests, and Mumbai with 2.5 million guests.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said 2023 was an exceptional year and is a testament to DXB’s commitment to “operational excellence, efficiency, innovation and delivering exemplary guest experience”.
Initial forecasts indicate that in 2024, DXB is anticipated to receive 88.8 million guests, putting the hub within striking distance of its previous all-time high record of 89.1 million guests set in 2018.
(With PTI inputs)
