As Dubai recorded its highest air travel traffic of the year on 18 December, dnata simultaneously delivered a seamless experience for over 256,000 passengers who arrived into and departed from Dubai International (DXB) and Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC) airports for the year-end holiday season. This represents a 4% increase in passenger traffic over the previous year.

The busiest day at Dubai’s airports was also the single busiest day for dnata in 2015 as it handled over 296,000 pieces of luggage and serviced over 570 flights. To ensure that every aspect of the passenger experience was taken care of, more than 9,000 dnata staff were mobilised at both Dubai airports with 6,400 vehicles deployed on the airside, including baggage conveyor belts, passenger steps, pushback trucks, and baggage cars.

“It took an incredible amount of coordination and teamwork to successfully handle the volume of passengers and air traffic in Dubai’s airports on this exceptionally busy day. On average, a flight was taking off or landing every minute. Round-the-clock, our ground handling crews delivered a smooth turnaround service and a strong, safe on-time performance,” said Nick Moore, dnata’s Senior Vice President, Airline Services.

dnata handles all flights and baggage at Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), as well as all passengers transiting though DWC and those accessing Terminals 1 and 2 at DXB. The global air services company serves passengers from more than 125 airlines, departing or arriving Dubai, or in transit en route to their final destination. In DXB alone, 136,000 passengers flew out to other destinations on 18 December. This figure represents an average of 95 travellers departing the airport every minute during the 24 hours.

“With DXB ranked the world’s busiest in terms of international passenger traffic*, dnata is firmly committed to continuously enhancing our operations and working with all stakeholders at the airport to ensure the highest service and safety standards customers have come to enjoy,” added Moore.

Outside of Dubai, dnata has ground handling operations in 54 other airports around the world, serving more than 250 airlines, and is the world’s largest ground handler of the Airbus A380 aircraft.