The traffic at Dubai Airport dropped by 66% in March 2026 compared to the previous year, as the United Arab Emirates faced strikes from Iran, according to official statistics released on Monday, May 4. The airport, which used to be the second busiest in the world for passengers after Atlanta (USA), only received 2.5 million travelers during the month, after experiencing “a period of disruptions that affected the air space capacity and flight schedules,” as stated in a press release.
In 2025, the airport welcomed 95.2 million passengers and initially aimed for 99.5 million this year. Now that the UAE airspace has returned to normal, Dubai airports are taking decisive measures to increase flight numbers according to Abu Dhabi.
Since the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, the Dubai International Airport has been targeted several times by drones, along with American military installations in the Gulf, as well as civilian infrastructure in these petro-monarchies, from Kuwait to Oman. The recent events are unprecedented for such a major air transfer hub, as noted by Dubai Airport’s director general, Paul Griffiths, in the press release.
Gulf airports like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha have built their economic model on connecting passengers, benefiting from their strategic location for flights to and from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The near paralysis of these facilities in the initial weeks of the conflict caused chaos in global air travel.
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