Emirates flights: Airline seat capacity to grow by more than 67% in 2022 – News

Dubai International remains the busiest airport for international flights in December with 4.6 million seats

As the aviation industry continues its steady recovery, airlines on Emirates routes will see year-on-year growth in seat capacity in 2022, albeit at a slower rate.

According to the latest data released by global travel data provider OAG, the reserved seat capacity this year reached 63.89 million, compared with 38.16 million last year, an increase of 67.4%. Compared to 2020, seat capacity has almost doubled, from 32.28 million to 63.78 million, an increase of 97.6%.

Compared with the year before the pandemic, when airlines had 75.78 million seat capacity on Emirates routes, seat capacity was still 15.9% below 2019 levels.

After the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, airlines grounded flights and airports closed to combat the disease. The UAE has also implemented measures in 2020 in line with global health safety guidelines and restrictions on airline movement.

But Dubai was one of the first cities to reopen post-Covid-19, recovering remarkably well after the pandemic. Data released in November showed that DXB traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter. As a result, Dubai Airports has raised its passenger traffic forecast for 2022 after strong passenger traffic in previous quarters.

The airport operator raised its forecast for 2022 by 1.5 million to 64.3 million after passenger traffic nearly tripled in the third quarter from a year earlier.

“Passenger traffic growth throughout the year has been excellent and continues to exceed our expectations. While we are excited about the numbers, what really pleases us is how the airport community is working together like a well-oiled machine to continuously improve The standard of service quality,” Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said after the meeting. third quarter results.

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DXB remains world’s busiest airport

According to OAG, Dubai International remains the busiest airport for international flights in December 2022 with 4.6 million seats, an increase of 8% from the previous month, followed by London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

Sahil Sharma, head of business at Innovations Group, expects travel and tourism and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) to assist the UAE’s aviation industry to continue its steady growth in 2023.

“Tourism is an important contributor to Dubai. Emirates airports are constantly adapting, improving and facilitating through technology by constantly evolving the customer journey. Thanks to this and the significant growth in global air traffic, the UAE will be able to attract more tourists ,”He said.

In addition, he said the United Nations climate summit COP28, which will be held in Dubai in 2023, will further attract a large number of international tourists who will attend the conference throughout the year.

There will be 4.7 billion reserved seats worldwide by the end of 2022, OAG said.

“Global capacity has rebounded by more than 30% compared to 2021 and nearly 50% compared to 2020. However, we are still around 18% below 2019 levels despite a stronger performance reported in the second half of the year, The shortfall is around 13-15%, and it will be a challenge to catch up further beyond the first quarter of this year,” it said.

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