DUBAI (AFP) – Passenger traffic at Dubai international airport, the world’s busiest, will not recover to pre-Covid levels before 2024, its CEO told AFP on Tuesday.
Traffic remains “nowhere near pre-pandemic levels” despite rising to 29.1 million passengers last year, Dubai Airports chief Paul Griffiths said in an interview.
The figures announced on Tuesday, up 12.7 percent from 2020, mean that Dubai remains the world’s busiest airport for the eighth consecutive year.
However, it is still a long way from the 86 million passengers seen in 2019, before the pandemic ravaged the air industry.
“We are nowhere near the pre-pandemic levels,” said Griffiths.
Passenger figures collapsed to 25.9 million in 2020, a drop of 70 percent, when Dubai airport was closed from March to July and fleets were grounded around the world.