DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, saw a record 92.3 million passengers pass through its terminals in 2024, officials announced Thursday.
The result cements Dubai’s bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 for the first time. Today, the airport feels like it is bursting at the seams with aircraft movements and crowds moving through its cavernous terminals as authorities plan to move operations in 10 years to the city-state’s second airport after a nearly $35 billion upgrade.
Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced the figure on the social media platform X. The state-owned airport is home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, which powers the network of state-owned and state-linked businesses known as “Dubai Inc.”
“Dubai is the airport of the world … and a new world in the aviation sector,” Sheikh Mohammed wrote.
In 2023, the airport, known as DXB, had 86.9 million passengers. Its 2019 traffic was 86.3 million passengers. It had 89.1 million passengers in 2018 — its previous busiest-ever year before the pandemic, while 66 million passengers passed through in 2022.
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A real-estate boom and the city’s highest-ever tourism numbers have made Dubai a destination as well as a layover. However, the city is now grappling with increasing traffic and costs pressuring both its Emirati citizens and the foreign residents who power its economy.
In 10 years, Dubai plans to move its airport operations to Al Maktoum International Airport, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from DXB. The airport, which opened in 2010 with one terminal and is known as DWC, served as a parking lot for Emirates’ double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft during the pandemic. But since then, it has slowly returned to life with cargo and private flights. It also hosts the biennial Dubai Air Show and has a vast, empty desert in which to expand.
DXB and DWC serve 106 airlines flying to 272 cities in 107 countries across the world.