Emirates Flew 8.6 Million Passengers in July and August

Emirates carried more than 8.6 million passengers across July and August, the airline said in a mid-September trading update, as Dubai’s flag carrier continues to rebuild after the regional airspace closures that hit Gulf aviation earlier this year.

The airline said it is now operating at roughly 93 per cent of the capacity it flew before the disruption. It described the summer as ahead of expectations and said winter bookings, for the season starting in late October, are tracking positively even though travellers are booking closer to departure than they used to.

Where demand is strongest

Emirates named South Africa, Brazil, India, Portugal, Egypt, Ghana, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan among markets where forward demand is ahead of last year, along with Nepal through its partnership with flydubai. Load factors on routes to West Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Africa were all well above 75 per cent over the summer, with Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire and the UK singled out.

Inbound traffic into Dubai also picked up. More than half a million passengers arrived in the city on Emirates flights in the second half of August, 7 per cent more than in the same period of 2025.

To win back cautious travellers, the airline loosened its booking rules over the summer, offering a free date change across the network and unlimited free changes on tickets to Dubai, and introduced a travel cover product that includes protection against conflict and airspace disruption.

Fleet and product spending continues

The recovery has not slowed investment. Since January Emirates has taken delivery of 18 aircraft, 11 Airbus A350s and seven Boeing 777 freighters, and expects six more A350s before the end of December. The A350 currently serves 30 destinations from Dubai, rising to 36 by year-end, with Larnaca, Malta, Nairobi and Hamburg due from late October and Mauritius in November.

The retrofit programme has now been completed on 104 aircraft, 53 Boeing 777s and 51 A380s. Emirates says 137 aircraft now offer Premium Economy and the latest cabins, a figure Emirates expects to reach 155 by December. Close to 50 aircraft have Starlink connectivity installed.

Context: a hub still climbing back

The numbers sit against a difficult first half for Dubai. Dubai Airports reported that DXB handled 31.5 million passengers in January to June, down 31.3 per cent year on year, after a record 95.2 million in 2025. Monthly traffic rose from 3.5 million in April to 5 million in June, and the airport operator said it expects a stronger second half.

As Emirates is DXB’s largest airline, its return towards full capacity will be the biggest single driver of whether the airport closes that gap. Emirates and flydubai together now offer more than 214 unique destinations, the airline said, and the two carriers have flown more than 28 million passengers on their joint network since their partnership began in 2017.