In 2021, around 29.1 million passengers passed through Dubai, representing "an annual growth of 12.7%", Dubai International Airport (DXB) said in a statement on Tuesday.
These numbers "exceed the forecast for the year by more than half a million passengers, thanks to a strong last quarter", he added.
“We are a long way from pre-pandemic levels,” acknowledged Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, in an interview with AFP.
The airport is aiming for 57 million passengers for the year 2022, according to him, but hopes to "exceed this objective".
“I think by the end of 2023 we will be much closer to pre-pandemic levels,” he said, betting on Australia and Asia gradually opening up.
In 2019, more than 86 million people passed through Dubai Airport.
The following year, against a backdrop of a sharp slowdown in air transport due to Covid-19, there were only 25.9 million, a colossal drop of 70%.
"It is very gratifying to see that for the eighth year in a row we are still the busiest international airport in the world, which is a very good statistic," said Paul Griffiths.
Travelers at Dubai International Airport, February 21, 2022 Karim SAHIB AFP
“It means that, even if our numbers are not what we would like them to be, the other airports have clearly done worse than us,” he insisted.
After its airport closed in March 2020, Dubai largely reopened to international travelers in July of the same year.
The Gulf emirate, a tourist destination known for its luxurious hotels and pharaonic attractions, imposed only one confinement at the height of the pandemic, then betting on an all-out vaccination campaign.
With its airport and its airline Emirates, the first in the Middle East, air transport is a crucial sector in the emirate of Dubai, poor in oil unlike its neighbors in the Gulf.
Travelers at Dubai International Airport, February 21, 2022 Karim SAHIB AFP
In 2019, some 16 million foreign tourists visited Dubai.
In 2021, the emirate totaled barely half, or more than seven million visitors, while hosting the Universal Exhibition from October until the end of March.
© 2022 AFP