The operator of Dubai’s airports predicted passenger traffic will be close to an all-time high this year, highlighting the need to expand beyond the city’s main hub and further develop a second facility.

Dubai Airports forecasts that Dubai International Airport (DXB) will receive 88.8 million passengers, close to the record 89.1 million seen in 2018. With the hub hemmed in by the growing city, the long-delayed expansion plans for the secondary Dubai World Central (DWC) airport are back in focus, said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive officer of the airport operator. 

“There isn’t really the space to be able to add additional runways or terminals at DXB, so all eyes are on the potential future of another airport development at DWC,” Griffiths said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday (Feb 19). “There are plans in the works at the moment, but nothing firm.”

Dubai, the world’s busiest long-haul hub, has seen traffic surge past pre-pandemic levels as visitor numbers to the city swell and long-haul connecting traffic rebounds. The city’s flag carrier, Emirates, posted record half-year profit through September 2023, and has been pushing for an expansion of DWC to accommodate its growth plans and expanding fleet. 

Dubai World Central, which hosts the biennial Dubai Air Show, has emerged as a hub for cargo planes and private jets, and Dubai Airports plans to encourage more airlines to move their operations in the next few years, Griffiths said. Still, DWC will need a major increase in infrastructure in order for it to cater to future growth, he said.  

Emirates President Tim Clark is persuading the government to build a much bigger airport with parallel runways able to fit the largest aircraft that will be flying at the time, the Boeing 777-9, as the carrier will run out of space very quickly at DXB, he told Bloomberg in January. 

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About 86.9 million passengers passed through Dubai International in 2023. That was 31.7 per cent higher than a year earlier and exceeded arrivals during the same period in 2019, before the pandemic decimated air travel across the world. BLOOMBERG