Dubai International Airport continues to be the largest air transport hub in the world

This December, Dubai International Airport recorded about 5.5 million scheduled seats on international flights (11 million seats in both directions), topping the world’s airports, setting a new record level, according to the periodic report issued by OAG, the international organization that provides data for airports and airlines.

The data, a copy of which was obtained by Emirates Today, showed that Dubai Airport remained the busiest airport in the world in December 2025, with an increase of 4% in seat capacity compared to the same month last year.

Dubai International continued to achieve strong gains compared to last year’s levels, as seat capacity at the airport increased at continuous growth rates since the beginning of this year, reaching a record level at the height of the summer of the year, and a record level during this December.

This increase in seat capacity at Dubai International Airport comes as airlines continuously raise their operations coinciding with the peak of demand in December, coinciding with the holiday season, after it recorded a strong performance in international traffic throughout 2024 and the first nine months of this year.

Seat capacity at Dubai International Airport has exceeded five million seats in all months since the beginning of this year except February, where the airport recorded 5.3 million seats in January and 4.78 million in February, bringing the number to 5.16 million in March, 5.0 million in April, 5.2 million in May, 5.1 million in June, 5.28 million in July, 5.34 million in August, 5.1 million in September, and 5.35 million seats in October. It reached about 5.3 million seats in November, and finally 5.5 million this December.

According to data from the international corporation, Dubai International Airport recorded about 62.4 million seats over the course of 2025 (about 124.8 million seats in both directions).

In the overall index (international and domestic flights), Dubai International Airport topped the list of world airports, and the American Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport came in second place, recording 5.2 million seats, followed by Tokyo Haneda Airport, recording 4.6 million seats, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in fourth place with about 4.4 million seats, and London Heathrow fifth with about 4.3 million seats.

In the international flights index only, Dubai Airport came in first place, followed by London Heathrow Airport with about 4.0 million seats, Singapore Airport in third place with about 3.74 million seats, Seoul Airport with about 3.7 million seats, and Hong Kong Airport in fifth place with about 3.5 million seats.

According to the latest data issued by Dubai Airports, Dubai International Airport continued to break records for quarterly passenger traffic in its 65-year history during the third quarter of 2025, as it received 24.2 million passengers between July and September, a growth of 1.9% compared to last year. This exceptional performance during the third quarter contributed to raising the total number of passengers during the first nine months to 70.1 million passengers, an increase of 2.1% over the same period last year, and passenger traffic during the twelve months ending in September reached a record high of 93.8 million passengers.