Dubai airport’s passenger traffic plunged by two-thirds in March following Iran’s attacks on the UAE during the Middle East war, the emirate’s media office said in a statement today.
“Traveller numbers at Dubai International, usually the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, sank to 2.5 million, down 66% year on year,” Dubai Media Office said.
The airport endured “a period of regional disruption that significantly constrained airspace capacity and flight schedules”, it said.
“With airspace within the UAE now fully restored, Dubai Airports is moving decisively to scale up operations, increasing flight movements in line with available regional routing capacity,” it said.
Dubai International was targeted several times by drones as the oil-rich UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s retaliation for US-Israeli strikes.
Quarterly traffic was down 21% to 18.6 million in the first quarter of 2026.
Dubai International handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year, and had been expecting to receive 99.5 million this year.
“The extraordinary events of the past few weeks are unprecedented for any major airport hub,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths was quoted as saying in the statement.
