Dubai airport handled record 46 million passengers in first half of year despite disruptions

Dubai International Airport (DXB) handled a record number of passengers in the first half of 2025, despite geopolitical challenges that led to closure of airspace and disrupted aviation operations in the region.

Passenger traffic at DXB, the world's busiest international aviation hub, served 46 million flyers across 222,000 flights in the six months through to the end of June, an annual 2.3 per cent increase, its operator Dubai Airports said in a statement on Tuesday.

The average monthly passenger traffic during the January-June period at DXB – the home-base for Emirates and low-cost carrier flydubai – hit about 7.7 million, while the daily volume of passengers averaged 254,000.

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During the second quarter of 2025, passenger traffic grew 3.1 per cent year-on-year to 22.5 million. April was the busiest month of the quarter with 8 million passengers, a record for this month.

However, in May and June the hub recorded a 3.9 per cent dip in the number of flights and 5.5 per cent drop in passenger numbers due to geopolitical conflicts, Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, told The National.

“The impact was very localised, very short lived and very insignificant in terms of the performance that we've seen over the last six months,” he said.

The region's aviation industry faced severe disruption in June when the 12-day Israel-Iran war forced the closure of airspace in the several Middle Eastern countries and disrupted aviation operations across the region.

The world's busiest hub by international passenger traffic had to make quick decisions as it sought to mitigate the impact.

“It was a dynamic situation and there were literally thousands of decisions made as the situation evolved,” Mr Griffiths added. “But, it passed extremely quickly.

“The traffic has bounced back enormously quickly and we've seen a record first-half as a result.”

Airport operations control centre

Mr Griffiths said DXB's Airports Operations Control Centre (AOCC), where real-time data from across the facility converge, allowed for quick decision-making.

Located at the north side of DXB, the centre brings all stakeholders under one roof and “it's been a very worthwhile exercise to consolidate all of the decision making”, Mr Griffiths said.

The rapid AI adoption into DXB's DNA has also given decision makers the resources needed to handle any crisis situation, he added.

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Outlook for growth

Looking ahead, DXB has maintained its full-year traffic forecast of 96 million passengers for 2025.

“We will hit our forecast numbers and hopefully revise them in an upwards direction,” Mr Griffiths said. “The signs are good and I'm very optimistic for the balance of the year.”

Airline customers at DXB are upgrading to larger aircraft and some are considering increasing their flight frequencies, so “incremental growth across all of our markets is the likely way the second half of 2025 will shape up”, he said.

DXB will also hit the 100-million passengers mark “during the course of 2026”, Mr Griffiths said. That is earlier than the previous forecast of 2027.

India remained DXB’s biggest country market in the first half with 5.9 million passengers, followed by Saudi Arabia (3.6 million); the UK (3 million); Pakistan (2.1 million); and the US (1.6 million). London was the busiest city destination with 1.8 million guests, followed by Riyadh, Mumbai, Jeddah, New Delhi and Istanbul.

While these markets are maturing, Mr Griffiths sees new leisure markets emerging. Travel between Dubai and Cambodia showed a “massive” annual increase of 233 per cent, while the Czech Republic is very popular and Vietnam is growing quickly, he said.

DXB is connected to more than 269 destinations in 107 countries, served by a network of 92 international airlines.

DXB handled more than 1 million tonnes of cargo in the first six months of the year, a 0.1 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2024.

Asked if state-owned Dubai Airports is considering an initial public offering, given its consistent growth over the years, Mr Griffiths said that DXB's performance continues to exceed expectations every year.

“Obviously it could be an attractive vehicle to raise funds” but that this is a decision for the Dubai government as the asset owner, he added.