Dubai International Airport (DXB) accounted for fully 71 percent of UAE passenger traffic in 2016, according to official information provided by the UAE’s Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA).
Using six airports listed in the dataset as a proxy for the total, UAE passenger movements passed the 100 million mark in 2014 and could exceed 125 million this year. Total passenger throughput in the UAE in the last five years grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent, based on its six main airports.
DXB saw throughput of 83.7 million passengers last year, the data shows. Abu Dhabi International ranked as the UAE’s second-largest airport last year, with 24.5 million, for a market share of 14 percent, while Sharjah International came third, with throughput of 9.2 million, a share of 7.8 percent.
The data also shows that the share of Ras Al Khaimah, Al Ain and Fujairah totaled less than one-half of one percent of the nation’s total throughput last year, meaning that these airports are likely to continue to see weak market share for the foreseeable future.
DXB became the world’s busiest airport for international passengers in 2014 with passenger numbers totalling 70.4 million. Passenger throughput has grown at double-digit rates in three of the past five years. Both Abu Dhabi and Sharjah grew at double-digit rates every year except 2016, according to the data.
The UAE is home to 12 IATA-designated airports. Of these, six are in the emirate of Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi International; Al Bateen Executive; Al Ain, an airbase; and two island airports serving tourism and the oil-and-gas industry. The others are DXB, Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) in Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and a Dubai airbase.
The DXB data does not include data for DWC, which has still to gain critical mass. “Passenger traffic at DWC grew 35.3 percent during the first half of 2017 with 554,993 passengers, compared to 410,278 in the same period in 2016,” Dubai Airports said.
AIN was able to access FCSA “open source” data on passenger throughput at UAE airports from the Bayanat.ae information portal advertised on the website of the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). The data, consolidated by AIN, includes line-items for arrival, departure and transit passengers (see table).
Official information provided by Dubai Airports shows that 2016 passenger throughput at DXB was 83,654,250, a 7.2 percent rise on the 2015 figure. It said the dataset in which this figure was included was based on a restatement due to a data validation exercise and update in methodology.
“DXB strengthened its position as world’s Number 1 international airport with annual traffic of 83.6 million passengers in 2016. Traffic is projected to reach 89 million in 2017,” Dubai Airports said.
It said it opened the $1.2 billion Concourse D in February 2016 to serve 60 airlines that operate into DXB Terminal 1, taking the airport’s annual capacity from 75 million passengers to 90 million passengers.
DXB is expected to hit its capacity ceiling next year, meaning that the “DXB Plus” expansion program will assume increased importance. It will enable the unconstrained growth of Dubai’s aviation sector until the midpoint of the next decade when the next phase of DWC is targeted for completion. DXB Plus is designed to help the city of Dubai accommodate 118 million passengers by 2023.
“In many ways DXB Plus will facilitate the smooth transition to Phase 2 of Dubai World Central, which will be the world’s biggest and best airport,” the Dubai Airports masterplan brochure said.
The FCSA is a UAE federal government entity createdin 2015 by Presidential Decree No. 6.. The authority’s mission is to strengthen and enhance UAE’s national data and competitiveness capacities.