Dubai International Airport has been the world’s busiest international airport for the past decade.

Dubai’s main gateway saw passenger traffic surge 49 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2022, slightly exceeding traffic in 2019, Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.

India was the top destination country in terms of traffic with six million passengers over the period, followed by Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and the United States.

London was the top city destination with 1.7 million passengers, followed by Mumbai and Riyadh with 1.2 million passengers each.

“As we recover with our H1 traffic surpassing pre-pandemic levels, we continue to remain committed to ensuring every guest who travels through our airport leaves with a smile,” said Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths.

Griffiths said he expected the airport to have served 85 million passengers by the end of the year, just 1.6 percent shy of annual traffic in 2019.

“We started the second half with strong demand in July, and with the ongoing seasonal peak coinciding with the reopening of schools in August, we’re preparing for an exceptionally busy rest of the year,” he said.

Dubai reopened to tourism in mid-2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when many other destinations were closed and has rebounded strongly since the revival of international travel.

Dubai welcomed more than 14 million international tourists in 2022, almost double the number of the previous year, according to the Department of Economy and Tourism.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian investors fleeing the war have helped to fuel a real estate boom in the emirate.

Dubai International Airport has been the world’s busiest international airport for the past decade.

The transit hub serves 257 destinations across 104 countries and 91 international airlines.