“Dubai International”… the largest airport in the world for the 12th year in a row

Preliminary data showed that Dubai International Airport is moving to maintain its position as the largest airport in the world during the year 2025, in terms of the number of international passengers, for the 12th year in a row, after it continued, over the past year, to record strong growth rates in international travel traffic, compared to its counterparts in the list of the largest airports in the world, according to data monitored by “Emirates Today”.

Dubai Airports expects the total annual passenger traffic during the past year (2025) to reach more than 95 million passengers, which is the highest number in the airport’s 65-year history, after Dubai International achieved record growth in the number of passengers during the first nine months of 2025, with 70.1 million passengers received.

Dubai Airports is expected to reveal the numbers for the past year, 2025, next February.

Preliminary data indicates that Dubai International leads the world’s airports in passenger traffic, after the major international airports announced the numbers of their international and local passengers during the year 2025. The British London Heathrow Airport (ranked in second place on the World Airports Council list) handled about 80 million international passengers during 2025 as a whole, while Incheon Seoul Airport (ranked third) recorded about 74 million international passengers.

In turn, during the year 2025, Singapore Airport recorded about 70 million international passengers, and Amsterdam Airport about 69.5 million passengers, compared to 66.7 million international passengers for Istanbul Airport, and 66 million passengers for Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in the period between January and November 2025 (December data has not yet been announced), and about 65 million and 61 million international passengers for both Frankfurt and Hong Kong airports in 2025. As a whole.

According to the data, Dubai International will top the list of the world’s largest airports in international passenger traffic, with a large difference, compared to London Heathrow Airport, which is ranked second, and other major airports in the annual list that is expected to be issued by the International Airports Council during the coming period.

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, with a growth of 1.9% compared to the year 2024.

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 in 2024.

During the month of December 2025, Dubai International Airport recorded the highest monthly passenger movement in its history, as the number of passengers who crossed the airport reached about 8.8 million passengers, compared to 8.3 million passengers in December 2024.

It is noteworthy that Dubai International Airport displaced its counterpart, London Heathrow, from first place in the number of international passengers in 2014, for the first time in history, after the British airport maintained the lead since the beginning of commercial air transport activity in the world.

. Dubai Airports expects the total annual passenger traffic, during 2025, to reach more than 95 million passengers, which is the highest number in the airport’s 65-year history.