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DUBAI: Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport will increase further in 2022 as pandemic restrictions ease and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar will further increase traffic to the city-state’s second airport, its chief executive said on Wednesday. surge in the first half of the year.

Paul Griffith, who oversees the world’s busiest airport for international travel, told The Associated Press that the airport has handled a 160 percent increase in traffic over the past six months compared with the same period last year, part of a rebound in global air travel. .

The nearly 28 million people who travelled through the airport in the past six months represent about 70% of the airport’s pre-pandemic levels, even though Dubai’s key source market from China remains closed due to strict pandemic restrictions. Griffith said he expects airport traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year.

“It was a very, very welcome surge in traffic,” Griffith said.

He added that the first Middle East World Cup will attract foreign fans to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Centre (DWC). From there, they will travel daily to Qatar, a small neighbor facing a hotel crunch.

“We’ve actually seen a huge demand at DWC for slot requests from airlines that want to operate shuttle services,” he said. “I think the city has a lot to offer and a lot to gain from the World Cup.”

He said airlines that bought extra seats from DWC to send football fans to the tournament included Qatar Airways, low-cost carrier FlyDubai and budget airline Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.

In the first half of 2022, the number of flights handled by Dubai International Airport increased by nearly 56% compared to the same period in 2021, when the contagious coronavirus variant battered the industry.

Now, in a sign of the industry’s health, Emirates said on Wednesday it would spend billions of dollars to revamp much of its fleet of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s. At the height of the pandemic, the airline received a $4 billion government bailout.