Dubai International (DXB) retained its position as the world’s number one hub for international passengers for the sixth consecutive year with annual traffic for 2019 reaching 86.4 million – 6 million more than the nearest rival, London Heathrow.
DXB welcomed a total of 86,396,757 international passengers during 2019 (-3.1%) as numbers were affected by a series of challenges throughout the year, including the 45-day closure of the airport’s southern runway to enable its refurbishment, global market conditions, as well as the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
During the fourth quarter of 2019, DXB welcomed 21.9 million customers (1.3%), taking the average monthly passenger numbers at the hub to 7.2 million for the year. The airport also breached the 8-million customer mark twice during the year (July and August).
India retained its position as the top source market for DXB by passenger numbers, with traffic for 2019 reaching 11.9 million, followed by Saudi Arabia with 6.3 million customers, and the United Kingdom finishing a close third with 6.2 million customers. Other destination countries of note include China (3.6 million customers) and the U.S. (3.2 million). The top three cities were London (3.6 million customers), Mumbai (2.3 million customers) and Riyadh with 2.2 million customers.
