The number of passengers at Dubai International (DXB) airport is expected to reach a record 93 million by the end of this year, surpassing the previous estimate of 91.8 million.
While speaking at the Future Hospitality Summit in Dubai on Monday, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said the “forecast is nearly 93 million by the end of the year.”
In August, Dubai International Airport reported a record 44.9 million passengers in the first half of 2024, up 8 per cent year-on-year. Griffiths said in first-half results that the Dubai Airports has a “very optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year, and we are on track to break records with 91.8 million annual guests forecasted for 2024.”
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The revised estimate predicts a boost of passenger traffic by 6 million when compared to last year’s figures when DXB achieved 87 million passengers. This will be a nearly 7 per cent increase year-on-year.
Dubai airport has been consistently growing after the pandemic as the aviation sectors bounced back strongly, driven by revenge travel (taking trips due to inability to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic). Dubai airport is also one of the world’s most connected airports globally. It was connected to 262 destinations across 104 countries through 102 international carriers by the end of June 2024.
“Our forecast is nearly 93 million passengers by the end of the year. You just put speed into everything. Our clients don’t want to be there any longer than possible. So it is better for us to put technology and processes in place to speed people through the airport…In order to achieve this huge throughput, we have to micromanage everything,” he said, adding that artificial intelligence is playing a huge part in this.
“Now we have cameras that are recording every single aspect of an aircraft turnaround. We have to analyse those to get targets and averages.”
Dubai Airports CEO noted that they have been employing and promoting Emirati talent since the launch of the graduate programme in 2007 and they now account for 78 per cent of the management team.
“A lot of them are women. They are there because they are the best; they made a huge difference. We started with 5,500 employees in 2007 with 30 million customers. Today, 93 million customers and more by the end of the year and we only have 1,800 staff. We have highly motivated people,” he said.