Hamad International Airport Displays an Impressive Ongoing Momentum in Passenger Growth
In 2014, Qatar opened its brand-new airport with the intention to redefine the future of airport operations and compete with the best airports in the world. By the end of 2019, Hamad International Airport (HIA) had served 38,786,422 passengers, which was the most it had reserved in a single year.
The same year that HIA announced its highest passenger traffic to date, the airport announced its multi-phased expansion plan, increasing the airport’s capacity to more than 58 million passengers annually in Phase A of the project, and increasing the capacity further to more than 60 million passengers per annum after the completion of phase B.
The following year 2022 began achieving strong passenger numbers, with HIA announcing that it efficiently served a record high influx of passengers during the winter holiday peak period, handling one million passengers in the first week of January 2020, marking the average of 138,649 passengers in a 24-hour period, which is the most number of passengers handled in a single day. During this period of high passenger influx, HIA went above and beyond maintaining high standards of passenger experience and operational excellence to successfully reduce queuing times at key touchpoints of the airport, with average wait times as low as 1 minute 20 seconds at transfer security and 2 minutes 24 seconds at arrival immigration.
While HIA’s impressive passenger traffic flows were interrupted by the worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qatar’s aviation hub was one of the very few airports which never halted operations. As a result, HIA announced in the first quarter of 2020 an increase of 4.7 percent in the global hub’s cargo activity in comparison to the same quarter the previous year. Cargo handling included the transportation of urgent medical relief aid and humanitarian assistance, which at the time was immensely needed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 saw HIA rapidly recovering its passenger figures after the pandemic slump. The airport witnessed a 41.37 per cent increase in the number of passengers served in 2021 compared to 2020, with a total of 17,702,635 passengers. It became clear that HIA’s safe and precautionary measures put in place during the pandemic and its business continuity plans were instrumental in restoring confidence in its passengers to resort back to air travel.
2021 was also the year that HIA ranked the number one airport in the world by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2021. It also won the Best Airport in the Middle East and the Best Airport to 25 to 35 million passengers category.
In 2022, the first quarter of the year, HIA witnessed a strong increase in passenger traffic, with a 162 percent surge compared to the same period in 2021. A total of 7.14 million passengers in the first quarter of 2022 were recorded, with 2,163,086 passengers in January, 2,168,265 passengers in February and 2,812,874 passengers in March 2022. HIA also introduced three new passenger destinations in Q1 of 2022, including RwandAir’s direct flights from Kigali, as well as new direct routes between Algiers and Doha at the rate of two flights per week every Thursday and Saturday. In total, HIA had 36 airline partners during Q1 of 2022.
After sustaining its position as the world’s best airport for the second year in a row by Skytrax, HIA’s passenger traffic numbers continued to grow stronger during the second quarter of 2022, showing a return to pre-COVID levels. HIA served a total of 2.5 million passengers in the month of April, 2.8 million passengers in May and 3.1 million passengers in June, which is a total of 8.42 million passengers served in the second quarter of 2022.
The average monthly passenger throughput for Q2 2022 showcased an 18 per cent increase in comparison to the first quarter of 2022. The passenger transfer percentage also grew by 16 percent this quarter over last year, and the number of outbound local passengers in Q2 was 47 percent higher than in Q1. The number of inbound passengers increased by 7 percent in comparison to Q1.
With more than 100,000 daily passengers and over 3 million passengers in a single month, HIA expects to end this year on an extremely positive note. Passenger numbers are still expected to grow further, with new airlines joining Qatar’s expanding aviation hub. Alongside new concepts, renowned brand stores as well as internationally recognized food and beverage outlets – HIA continues to be the go-to destination for millions of global travellers.