Dubai International handled 31.5mn passengers in the first half of 2026, with traffic building steadily through the second quarter as airline capacity returned following one of the most difficult operating periods in the airport’s history, Dubai Airports said, after a troubling first half of the year due to shutdowns related to the Iran war.
The half-year total was down 31.3% year on year, the legacy of the Gulf aviation crisis triggered by the Iran war earlier in 2026, which forced mass cancellations and airspace closures across the region. With regional airspace constraints easing, monthly volumes recovered from 3.5mn in April to 4.5mn in May and 5mn in June, a trajectory the operator said pointed to resilient demand ahead of the traditionally busier winter season.
“The first half of the year tested every part of the aviation system, and demonstrated our resilience. As capacity steadily returns across the board, demand is responding immediately,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports. He said international transfers, which account for a significant share of DXB’s traffic, left the hub well placed to absorb returning demand and reinforce Dubai’s position as a leading global hub.
Aircraft movements totalled 150,600 in the first half, down 32.1% year on year, while cargo volumes fell 28.7% to 751,340 tonnes. By the end of June, DXB was served by almost 50 international airlines connecting to 217 destinations across 99 countries, with load factors strengthening back towards 2025 levels.
The airport processed 30.3mn bags in the half, down 28%, with a mishandled baggage rate of 2.7 per 1,000 passengers, below the global industry benchmark of about 4.9. Nearly 99% of guests cleared passport control for departure in under 10 minutes, and 99.34% passed through security in under 5 minutes, the operator said.
Dubai Airports said it was continuing to invest through the downturn, with a programme spanning a new consolidated remote departures experience, expanded self-service, biometric systems and improvements to passenger flow and guest areas. It expects stronger momentum in the second half, supported by the rebuilding of airline networks, rising transfer traffic, easing travel advisories, the winter schedule, and Dubai’s calendar of business, leisure, and sporting events.
The year-on-year comparison is, to be frank, close to meaningless. A 31.3% decline measures the half against a baseline that included the effective closure of Gulf airspace during the Iran war, a disruption without modern precedent for the region’s hubs. The more instructive figure is the intra-quarter progression, from 3.5mn passengers in April to 5mn in June, which restores DXB to a monthly run-rate approaching its pre-conflict norm within a single quarter.
For an airport whose economics rest on international transfer traffic rather than point-to-point demand, the speed of that recovery matters more than its depth, because connecting flows return only when network breadth and schedule reliability do.