Traffic surges at Dubai airport but lags behind 2019 peak

Traffic has more than doubled last year at Dubai’s airport, the world’s busiest for international flights, but has yet to fully recover after the coronavirus pandemic. The number of passengers is surging but the state-of-the-art airport in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates has avoided the travel chaos that has rippled across North America and Europe. Figures released on Tuesday show that over 66 million passengers passed through in 2022, up from 29.1 million in 2021. Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, told The Associated Press that he expects traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year or early 2024, with a boost from a reopening China.