Dubai World Central (DWC) registered a surge in customer numbers in 2019 with annual traffic exceeding 1.6 million (+81.5%) during 2019. The sharp increase in customer numbers was primarily the result of the relocation of operations by a number of international carriers during the 45-day closure of Dubai International’s (DXB) southern runway for rehabilitation in April-May 2019.
Year on year traffic also increased in the final quarter of the year compared with 2018 as DWC welcomed 363,626 customers in Q4 (+38.2%), mainly due to seasonal operations by chartered airlines.
Top destinations in 2019
Regions contributing to traffic growth at DWC during 2019 were CIS with 583,763 passengers, followed by South Asia with 380,000 passengers, and the GCC with 281,244 passengers. Russia was the top country destination with 549,806 passengers followed by Saudi Arabia with 201,138 passengers and India with193,900 passengers. The top cities served by the DWC network included Moscow with 253,092 passengers, Budapest with 60,098 passengers and Jeddah with 55,873 passengers.
Flights
There were 8,871 flights during Q4 bringing the annual total to 36,949 movements (+23.3%).
Cargo
With a total of 234,741 tons of freight in recorded in Q4, DWC’s annual cargo volume reached 911,571 tons (-7.7%).
Source: Dubai Airports