Airports Council International (ACI) rankings show that for the ninth year in a row, Dubai International Airport (DXB) was the world’s busiest international hub for passengers in 2022, because to a rise in demand for flights over vast distances.
The trade group for airports, which represents around 2,000 airports around the world, announced on Wednesday that London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Istanbul joined Dubai as the top five busiest hubs by international flight traffic.
Dubai International Airport, which does not have a domestic market, saw a year-over-year increase in passenger traffic of more than 100%, reaching 66.1 million.
Even though “we continue to march forward carefully among many obstacles that could impair the speed and size of global air traffic recovery,” the latest rankings are a significant step toward pre-pandemic levels, as stated by ACI World’s director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira.
The reopening of China’s aviation sector, the world’s second largest after the United States’, is predicted to boost business everywhere.
As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prepares to host big international events like the Dubai Airshow and the Cop28 climate summit, state-owned operator Dubai Airports forecasts the number of passengers through the international hub will surpass 78 million by the end of this year.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, told The National in February that if monthly passenger statistics reach 7.5 million, the airport would have fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year or the beginning of 2024.
Airlines and airports around the world are confronting high jet fuel expenses and increasing pressure to decrease their carbon footprint as they scale up operations to satisfy soaring travel demand following a two-year Covid-19 outbreak that shattered air travel demand.
With international travel picking back up in 2022, ACI estimates global passenger traffic to have reached nearly 7 billion, up 53.5% from 2021, and back to 73.83% of 2019 levels.
ACI shows data of other airports other than Dubai as well
According to ACI statistics, last year Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) had the most passengers of any airport in the world, with 93.7 million passengers passing through its gates.
From 2021 on, the second, third, and fourth busiest airports in the United States will be Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Denver International Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, respectively.
Five of the world’s top 10 airports are located in the United States, according to ACI rankings. Airports in the United States fared well since domestic tourism is on the upswing. According to ACI, all five airports in the country collectively provide between 75% and 95% of the country’s domestic passenger traffic.
London Heathrow jumped the most spots in the top 10 and now occupies the eighth spot. As borders opened again in March 2022, two years after being closed due to a pandemic, the airport moved up from 54th place.
India’s rapidly expanding tourism industry and aviation aspirations helped propel Delhi International Airport to the top 10 for the first time, up from 13th in 2021 and 17th in 2019.
The rankings consider both domestic and foreign markets for each airport throughout the world and are based on preliminary data collected for 2022.
Atlanta, Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), considering the number of airlines using the airport, it ranks first globally.
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