Dubai Has Been Named The Most Busy International Airport In The World For The Ninth Year In A Row

Dubai International Airport. (Wikimedia Commons/Constantin von Wedelstaedt)

JAKARTA - Dubai International Airport (DXB), United Arab Emirates maintains its title as the world's busiest international hub for passengers in 2022 for the ninth year in a row, as long-distance travel requests soar, according to rating results conducted by the Airports Council International (ACI).

London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Istanbul follow Dubai as the five busiest hubs based on international air traffic, according to ACI, which represents nearly 2,000 airports worldwide.

DXB, which does not have a domestic market, has more than doubled passenger traffic this year to 66.1 million this year.

"While we continue to move forward with caution amid various obstacles that could affect the speed and magnitude of global air traffic recovery, this latest ranking is an important milestone in reaching pre-pandemic levels," said ACI World Director-General Luis Felipe de Oliveira, as reported by The National News April 5.

"The reopening of China, the second largest aviation market after the United States, is now expected to bring overall profit, both domestically and for international travel," he continued.

Dubai Airports state-owned operators project the number of passengers who will pass the international hub by the end of this year will reach 78 million, as the UAE prepares to host major international events such as Dubai Airshow and the Cop28 Climate Summit.

Last February, Dubai Airport Chief Executive Paul Griffiths told The National the full recovery to a pre-pandemic level could occur by the end of this year, or early 2024, if the monthly passenger count reached 7.5 million.

Global airlines and airports, which have recently recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic over two years destroying demand for air travel, are now facing high jet fuel bills and mounting pressure to reduce their carbon footprint as they step up operations to meet soaring travel demand.

The initial figure of ACI shows that with the return of international travel, global passenger traffic in 2022 will reach nearly 7 billion, an increase of 53.5 percent from 2021, and recover to 73.8 percent from the 2019 rate.

Meanwhile, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport once again top-ranked by passenger traffic as a whole last year, back to the list with an increase of 23.8 percent year-on-year to 93.7 million travelers, ACI data showed.

Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport, Denver International Airport, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport follows Atlanta International Airport and maintains its position starting in 2021.

Of the top 10 airports in the world, five of them are in the US, according to ACI data. The strong performance of airports in the US is due to healthy recovery on domestic travel. The five airports in this country have a significant share of domestic passenger traffic between 75 percent and 95 percent, said ACI.

Dubai is fifth in the list of the 10 busiest airports in the world.

London Heathrow is in eighth place and recorded the biggest jump on the top 10 list. The airport is upgrading from its 54th position, as the border reopens in March 2022, after two years of closure due to the pandemic.

Delhi International Airport is on the top 10 for the first time, surging from 13th in 2021 and 17th in 2019, driven by fast-growing travel markets and aviation ambitions in India.

This rating is based on the initial compilation of global data in 2022 from airports around the world and considering their domestic and international markets.