Dubai International Airport (DXB) has kept its position as the world's busiest international airport. It overtook London's Heathrow airport, which had been top for over a decade. DXB handled a record 78 million passengers in 2015. This is an average of one every 2.5 seconds. Heathrow handled 75 million passengers but had more daily flights than DXB. In January 2015, there were over 8,000 weekly flights from DXB, operated by 140 airlines to over 270 destinations on six continents. Dubai's other airport has a planned annual capacity of up to 250 million passengers.

DXB is a vital part of Dubai's economy. It employs around 90,000 people and indirectly supports over 400,000 jobs. It is worth over $26.7 billion to the economy, which represents around 27 per cent of Dubai's GDP. The CEO of DXB said: "It's another banner year for Dubai International where we broke records, engaged and entertained our customers in new ways, and retained our position as the world's number one international hub." DXB will soon set another record when the airline Emirates launches the world's longest non-stop flight, connecting Dubai with Auckland.