Dubai International Airport (DXB), the world’s busiest airport, is planning to replace it with an even bigger airport due to the growing demand for passengers. Paul Griffiths, the chief executive officer made the official statement earlier this week during the ongoing event of Dubai Airshow 2023.

“Once we’ve reached about 120 million (passengers a year), which is what we think our total capacity at DXB (Dubai International) is at the absolute maximum with everything optimised, we are going to need a new airport. That is going to have to happen at some stage during the 2030s,” Paul Griffiths said.

The Dubai International Airport has witnessed annual passenger traffic reaching 86.8 million at DXB, which surpassed the number in 2019. At the current time, the Dubai International Airport is capable of managing 100 Million passengers per year, but with more innovative technology, demodulation, and depending on the proper use of resources and space the airport could be able to expand its capacity by 120 million.

Paul Griffiths disclosed that the airport authority would start working on the mega airport design elements in the next few months.

He also said, “It stands to reason that Al Maktoum International has to be even bigger and even better than Dubai International. This will be a project that extends way into the 2050s because we take the long-term view here.”

“We always knew that when the pandemic struck, there’d be an equal and strong recovery because people under lockdown for two years were denied the ability to travel. And so that’s why we’ve bounced back so quickly,” he said to  AFP.

He further added, “We are not planning an airport that has terminals. We’re going to completely change the business model for airports, make them actually far more intimate, and get rid of all the legacy processes that we’ve had to subject our customers to, for far too long.” 

However, he did not disclose any details on the capacity target or the price tag applicable for the new bigger airport. However, he has elaborated that rather than based around terminals the whole new airport going to be designed based on a modular, which will let the airport expand easily over time.

Exceeding Projections:

Dubai International Airport, the largest hub in the world, made a record 22.9 million passengers during the third quarter, which is equally the highest count of quarterly passenger traffic since 2019. It is taking the complete Year-to-Date traffic for the beginning nine months to 64.5 million, which marks an increase of 39.3 percent as compared to a similar period in 2022, and one 1 percent more than in 2019.

The aviation sector of the United Arab Emirates has been spreading at a remarkable stage after a fulfilling handling of the recent pandemic. It gives more positive confidence in the leadership of the religion, economic situation, and major capabilities seeing a massive boost.

The travel and tourism sector in Dubai also witnessed a record visitor number in the first nine months of 2023. The city has attracted 12.45 million international tourists, which is over 23 percent year on year and exceeded the previous registered record of  12.08 million visitors in  2019.

Paul Griffiths said that they’re thrilled but it is not entirely surprising that Dubai International Airport is all set to fulfill the milestone of the pre-pandemic time. Moving forward with the initial projections for nearly a year, “Our outlook for the remainder of this year and the next remains optimistic. Teaming up with our strategic partners, we’re ready for the challenge to continue to exceed guest satisfaction amidst the continuous surge in traffic.”

Top-most Destinations:

The top country destination of Dubai International Airport was India on the subject of passenger traffic count with 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of the year 2023, followed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with 4.8 million, and the United Kingdom with 4.4 million. There are a few other country destinations to note including Pakistan with 3.1 million visitors, the United States with 2.7 million, and Russia with 1.8 million in the same year.

The top cities to note in terms of traffic were London and Riyadh with 2.7 million and 1.9 million respectively. This is closely followed by Mumbai and Jeddah with 1.8 million and Jeddah with 1.7 million passengers independently. 

There are a number of 57.5 million bags processed at the DXB in 2023 which is a success rate of 99.8 percent, where a rate of 2.5 mishandled bags was also witnessed per 1,000 passengers. 91 percent of the baggage of all the passengers was delivered successfully within 45 minutes in the situation of baggage delivery on arrival. The volume of baggage volume in 2023 exceeds 106.07 percent of the baggage volume compared to 2019 at the Dubai International Airport.

The average stand-by time for the arrived passengers at queues for passport control was shorter than 11 minutes for 96.4 percent and a count of 95.1 percent of passengers queued for not more than six minutes at the section of departure passport control.

The statement disclosed on Wednesday, November 15 that the waiting time in the queue for security check for the passengers departing from DXB is as minimum as four minutes for 98.4 percent of the total passenger volume.

The cargo facility witnessed a surge of 12.3 percent every year by year in the third quarter, likely to touch 446,400 tonnes. The airport recorded 1.3 million tonnes of cargo within the first nine months of 2023, which is registering a slight deduction of less than 1 percent.

Flight movements in DXB during Q3 increased to 106,000 by 5.1 percent. The airport handled a total flight movement of 308,000 between January and September, surging by  25.2 percent year-on-year.