Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths says passenger traffic is recovering after the regional conflict disrupted flights, with DXB now expecting around 70 million passengers in 2026.
Dubai International Airport (DXB) faced 111 threat alerts and 17 missile strikes during the regional conflict earlier this year, according to Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths, who said the airport managed to keep casualties extremely limited and is now seeing a strong recovery in passenger traffic.
Speaking during an international media briefing hosted by the Dubai Media Office on September 10, Griffiths said most of the strikes caused minimal damage and that all people injured during the incidents had since fully recovered.
“I didn’t go to airport school. But if I had done, I’m absolutely sure there’d be no class on, ‘this is what you do with ballistic missile attacks’,” Griffiths said, describing how airport teams had to develop responses to an unprecedented situation within hours.
He said DXB recorded 111 alerts during the period of hostilities and 17 actual strikes.
“The most satisfying statistics, there were 0 deaths and very, very limited casualties,” Griffiths said.
Dubai Airport Traffic Is Rebounding
Despite the disruption, passenger numbers have recovered significantly since the worst period of the conflict.
Dubai Airports handled 31.5 million passengers in the first half of 2026, Griffiths said. Monthly traffic had dropped to around 2.5 million passengers in March, before recovering to approximately 5 million in June and 6.3 million in July.
The jump from June to July represented an increase of about 26% in a single month.
Griffiths described the recovery as a “trampoline bounce”, reflecting Dubai’s ability to recover quickly after a major shock.
He said the airport is now expecting around 70 million passengers in 2026, significantly below its earlier expectation of approaching 100 million.
Dubai International Airport handled a record 95.2 million passengers in 2025, setting the benchmark that DXB had initially expected to surpass this year.
Griffiths said reaching 100 million passengers may instead be possible by the end of 2027.
Airline Capacity Is Returning
The recovery has also been reflected in international airline operations.
Griffiths said capacity at Dubai’s airport had recovered to around 84% of pre-crisis levels, while passenger numbers had reached approximately 78% of the previous level.
European carriers have been among the airlines most affected by the disruption, although Griffiths said airlines were gradually returning.
Air France had resumed Dubai services, although flights were subsequently paused until September 10 amid renewed regional tensions.
Griffiths said carriers currently absent from the airport had announced plans to return on October 25, coinciding with the start of the winter schedule.
“I’m pretty confident that we’ll have pretty much everyone back that’s missing at the moment by the winter season,” he said.
He added that bookings for November and December were encouraging, strengthening expectations that Dubai’s international connectivity will largely normalise by the end of the year.
Dubai Remains a Major Global Aviation Hub
According to Griffiths, DXB is currently connected to 104 countries and 260 cities, reinforcing its role as a major international connecting hub.
He said the temporary withdrawal of some European airlines during the northern hemisphere summer was partly a commercial decision rather than an indication that carriers were abandoning Dubai.
Airlines had to decide whether to continue operating routes to Dubai during a period of uncertainty or redeploy aircraft to stronger European leisure markets during the summer season.
“They made that decision and I respect and understand it,” Griffiths said.
But he argued that airlines could not remain out of Dubai indefinitely because of the importance of the market.
“They can’t afford to be out of the Dubai market,” he said.
Dubai Handles Nearly Half of Gulf Connecting Traffic
Griffiths said Gulf airports collectively handle around 100 million connecting passengers, with Dubai accounting for approximately 45% of that traffic.
That gives Dubai an outsized role in the region’s aviation network and helps explain why airlines have an incentive to restore capacity as conditions improve.
“We’re a very, very vital part of not just the local aviation scene, but the global aviation scene,” Griffiths said.
The airport’s position is also supported by Dubai’s wider economic model, which relies heavily on international connectivity for tourism, trade, business travel and investment.
Passenger Mix Has Remained Stable
Despite the disruption, the fundamental composition of DXB’s passenger traffic has remained relatively stable.
Griffiths said the airport was still seeing a roughly 45% to 55% split between connecting and direct traffic, depending on the month and direction of travel.
He also said business travel had remained an important part of the airport’s traffic base.
India, Saudi Arabia and the UK continued to rank among Dubai’s most important markets, while traffic from much of the rest of the world remained relatively resilient.
“Generally the rest of the world is pretty robust, and we’re seeing quite a normal distribution of traffic which doesn’t differ from where we were before,” Griffiths said.
The UAE’s Economy and Aviation Are Closely Linked
For Griffiths, the recovery in aviation is closely connected to Dubai’s broader economic resilience.
The airport is not simply a transportation hub. Its passenger volumes support tourism, hotels, retail, business travel, aviation services and a much wider ecosystem across the UAE.
“The UAE correctly recognises the absolute direct link between the thriving economy, the connectivity of the city and having a healthy, vibrant and rapidly growing aviation sector,” Griffiths said.
That relationship became especially visible during the conflict, when disruptions to aviation quickly affected travel patterns but the recovery was equally rapid once conditions improved.
DXB Moves From Crisis Response to Recovery
The figures from 2026 highlight two very different sides of Dubai’s aviation story.
During the conflict, DXB faced an extraordinary operational challenge, recording 111 threat alerts and 17 missile strikes while maintaining airport operations and avoiding fatalities.
Months later, passenger numbers are climbing again, airline capacity is returning and winter bookings are providing signs of stronger demand.
The airport’s 70 million passenger forecast for 2026 is well below the nearly 100 million originally expected, but Griffiths’ comments suggest the gap is largely a consequence of temporary disruption rather than a fundamental loss of demand for Dubai.
The bigger test will now be whether airline schedules fully recover through the winter season and whether DXB can return to its previous growth trajectory.
For Dubai Airports, the message from this year’s crisis is clear: the disruption was severe, but the recovery has been equally striking.
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“We have to learn in a matter of a few hours what to do in the case of an onslaught,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said, describing the airport’s response to the conflict.
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Source: Gulf News
