6.4 million scheduled seats were recorded in March

UAE airports regain 98% of pre-pandemic seat capacity

Companies operating at the country's airports added 25.7 million seats in 2022. Archival

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According to OAG, the international provider of airport and airline data, airlines operating at UAE airports occupied about 6.4 million scheduled seats on international flights departing in March, thus restoring about 98% of their seat capacity, compared to pre-pandemic levels in March 2019, when the total capacity at that time reached about 6.5 million seats.

According to data from the institution, a copy of which was obtained by Emirates Today, the UAE accounts for about 31% of the total scheduled seat capacity in the Middle East as a whole, noting that air carriers in the region recorded about 20.8 million scheduled seats during March.

She stated that the UAE-India route ranked in the list of the 20 busiest routes in the world with about 1.9 million seats in March, followed by the UAE-Saudi route with about 1.1 million scheduled seats, explaining that Dubai International Airport still retains the first position as the largest airport in the world in terms of scheduled seat capacity on international flights.

According to the corporation's data, airlines operating at the country's airports added more than 25.7 million new seats last year, reflecting the accelerated recovery of the travel sector in the UAE, as air carriers were able to regain more than 84% of seat capacity levels last year in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is noteworthy that the General Authority of Civil Aviation expected that the movement and number of passengers through the country's airports during the current year will reach levels similar to those recorded during 2019, noting that the country's airports have restored a large part of air traffic during 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels, as it received in 2019 about 128 million passengers.