Dubai Airport delays passenger target as Iran war crimps growth
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Smoke rising from an area near Dubai International Airport after a drone attack hit a fuel tank on March 16.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dubai International Airport said it will need another year to reach a landmark passenger target as the war in Iran crimps demand at the world’s biggest international aviation hub.
“We were projecting to get to break that golden 100 million passenger mark this year; I think that may be relegated to 2027 and we are still confident of doing that,” Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The airport reported a 66 per cent drop in passenger numbers in March as the US-Israel war with Iran disrupted air traffic across the Middle East.
The figures dragged down the airport’s first-quarter passenger traffic to 2.5 million, down 21 per cent from the same period in 2025, the airport said in a statement on May 4.
India continued to be the airport’s largest market, with 2.5 million guests, followed by Saudi Arabia, Britain and Pakistan.
London remained the hub’s busiest destination city, with 752,000 travellers, followed by Mumbai and Jeddah.
The company did not specify forecasts for the year, but Mr Griffiths said he expects it to be in “positive territory” and is “anticipating very strong recovery over the next few months, hopefully led by transfer traffic over the summer”.
It is looking to scale up operations after the United Arab Emirates lifted restrictions on travel.
However, only 51 out of 90 airlines have resumed their operations at the airport, with most of the ones that are missing being from Western Europe and the US, as they still face difficulties securing insurance cover due to government travel advisories, according to Mr Griffiths.
Since the war started at the end of February, Dubai’s main airport has had to shut down several times due to drone incidents in its vicinity.
Other airports across the region have also been impacted during the war.
Abu Dhabi Airport said that one person died and several were injured in the early days of the conflict after the emirate intercepted an Iranian drone.
Airports in Kuwait and Bahrain were also targeted.
Emirates and flydubai, which account for a major portion of traffic at Dubai International Airport, have not yet been able to restore full capacity.
Dubai’s flag carrier has had to cancel thousands of flights over the course of the last two months, reworking its international network and flying near-empty planes to its hub in the emirate as travellers avoid the Persian Gulf.
“Long-term plans are not affected and I think this well be a short-term blip from which we will very quickly recover,” Mr Griffiths said. BLOOMBERG
