Four 4th year, Dubai airport retains world's top spot for international traffic

Feb 5: Dubai International (DXB) retained its position as the world's number one airport for international passengers for the fourth consecutive year with annual traffic for 2017 reaching 88.2 million passengers, according to the annual traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports today.

Propelled by high traffic volumes averaging 7.35 million passengers per month throughout the year, including the record months of January, July and August when traffic breached the 8-million passenger mark, DXB's traffic reached 88,242,099 passengers for the full year, up 5.5 per cent compared to 83,654,250 passengers recorded during 2016. The airport welcomed 7,854,657 passengers in December, up 1.9 per cent compared to 7,706,351 recorded in the same month in 2016.

DXB welcomed six new scheduled passenger airlines during the year, including SalamAir, Badr Airlines, and Air Moldova, while home based carriers Emirates and flydubai added 3 and 10 new passenger destinations and increased frequency/capacity on 31 and 22 routes respectively.

India continued its domination run as the single largest destination country for DXB with 12,060,435 passengers in 2017, up 5.4% compared to 11,440,215 passengers recorded in 2016. The UK claimed the second spot with 6,466,404 passengers (+6.7 per cent), overtaking Saudi Arabia which recorded 6,364,598 passengers (4.6 per cent).

Markets showing the most significant growth during the year included Russia with passenger numbers surging 28 per cent to 1,339,534 and China with 2,212,179 passengers, up 19.4 per cent over 2016. The surge follows the relaxation of visa regulations by the UAE to offer visa on arrival for both Russian and Chinese visitors. Thailand, bolstered by additional capacity deployed by Emirates through a switch to two-class A380 service, also registered robust growth of 15.2 per cent with passenger numbers reaching 2,445,053 in 2017.

London retained its position as the top destination city with 4,011,598 passengers, followed by Mumbai with 2,477,771 passengers and Jeddah with 2,113,820 passengers.

Top regions in terms of percentage growth in 2017 were South America (36.1 per cent), Eastern Europe (25.3 per cent) and Asia (17.9 per cent) - mainly spurred by network expansion by Emirates, flydubai and other carriers.

The average number of passenger per flight grew 6.9 per cent to 223 during the year compared to 209 for 2016, mainly due to DXB's position as the world's largest hub for wide body aircraft, particularly for the A380.

The number of flight movements during 2017 totalled 409,493, down 2.4 per cent compared to 419,654 recorded in 2016. December's flight numbers totalled 35,132 compared to 36,065 in the corresponding month in 2016, down 2.6 per cent.

DXB witnessed some fluctuation in cargo volumes during the year but thanks to the bumper growth in March (8.4 per cent), August (11.8 per cent*) and September (5.8 per cent), 2017 freight volumes reached a record 2,654,494 tonnes, up 2.4 per cent compared to 2,592,454 recorded during 2016. In December DXB handled 229,019 tonnes of cargo compared to 230,122 tonnes recorded in the same month during 2016, a minor contraction of 0.5 per cent.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, "It was a very successful year for DXB as we not only achieved robust growth in traffic to solidify our position as the world's number one international airport but also delighted our customers with a range of new and exciting services and innovative products."

"We made passenger journeys through the facility smoother by reducing waiting times - by deploying cutting edge technology to track and manage queues in real time, as well as by enabling the use of Emirates ID at smart gates for UAE residents. The year witnessed the launch of WOW-Fi, the world's fastest free airport Wi-Fi, followed by free streaming movies for our passengers through our partnership with ICFlix. Lastly the Dubai Airshow was a massive success with record orders of $113 billion and a special Gala Dinner made unforgettable by Jennifer Lopez's performance."

"With passenger traffic expected to reach 90.3 million in 2018, our focus in the new year will be on the DXB Plus programme which aims to expand the airport's annual capacity to 118 million passengers through process improvements and use of new technology," Griffiths added.

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Israel killing Palestinian children in Gaza every day despite ceasefire: UNICEF

News Network

November 22,2025

The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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