Indians retains its position as top destination country for Dubai International Airport in 2019

India has retained its position as the top destination country for the Dubai International Airport, which is ranked as the world's busiest airport for the sixth consecutive year despite a series of challenges facing the aviation industry , according to an official statement.

The Dubai International Airport (DXB) in 2019 received 11.9 million passengers from India, followed by 6.3 million from Saudi Arabia and close to 6.2 million customers from the United Kingdom.

"The top three cities were London with 3.6 million customers, Mumbai with 2.3 million customers and Riyadh with 2.2 million customers," the statement said.

Other destination countries include China with 3.6 million customers and the US with 3.2 million travellers.

In 2018 too India was the biggest source of traffic for the DXB, accounting for more than 12.2 million travellers. The DXB also retained its position as the world's number one hub for international passengers for the sixth consecutive year with annual traffic for 2019 reaching 86.4 million - 6 million more than the nearest rival Heathrow Airport in London, the statement released here said.

The year was also exceptional for the DXB in terms of customer service with shorter wait times, record-breaking baggage performance and new retail and food and beverage offerings, the statement said.

The DXB welcomed a total of 86,396,757 passengers for the full year of 2019 (-3.1 per cent).

The decrease in passengers inflow compared to the previous year was due to a series of challenges throughout the year, including the 45-day closure of the airport's southern runway to enable its refurbishment, global market conditions, as well as the worldwide grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the statement said.

During the fourth quarter of 2019, the DXB welcomed 21.9 million customers (1.3 per cent), taking the average monthly passenger numbers at the hub to 7.2 million for the year.

"While customer numbers in 2019 were lower than the preceding year, the impact of the 45-day closure of the runway, the bankruptcy of Jet Airways, as well as the grounding of the Boeing's 737 Max accounted for an estimated 3.2 million passengers over the course of the year, and indicate underlying growth at DXB, said Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports, expressing satisfaction with DXB's performance in 2019.