Amid the excitement around New Year’s Day 2026, the fireworks, whether it’s at the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Frame, or one of many other places across Dubai, we usually forget the extent of what goes into making the New Year’s Eve special. According to the Road and Transport Authority (RTA), it transported over 2.8 million passengers on the New Year’s Eve 2026 celebration, resulting in a 14 percent year-on-year increase.

The Journey from 2.5 million to 2.8 million in a Year

Last year, Dubai’s RTA transported 2.5 million riders across public transport such as public buses, Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, Marine Transport, Dubai Taxis, Shared Mobility, etc. That number rose by 2.8 million (or 2,836,859 to be precise), marking a 13.6% increase in year-on-year ridership.

Drilling down on the specifics, we have 503K riders on public buses, 1.24 million on Dubai Metro, 58K on Dubai Tram, 2.36K on smart Rental Services, 661.5K on Dubai Taxis, 76.7K on Marine Transport, and 1.4K on Shared Mobility. This number is huge, given that all this happened on New Year’s Eve.

This was all possible because of the smooth transits crafted by the RTA in Dubai that developed integrated traffic and operational plans, management of traffic, gradual and temporary closure and opening of strategic roads across the emirates, and the oversight provided by RTA, Dubai Police, and other strategic partners.

Some Records Were Broken by RTA & Dubai

The event marks the readiness and efficiency that the transport system across the emirate is poised to offer when it comes to non-compromising elements such as public safety and smooth mobility. This puts Dubai on the map as a global destination with people from over 200 countries visiting every year. In fact, Dubai marked another record in terms of international visitors during the Christmas and New Year season, with an average of 294K total passengers at Dubai DXB Airport. It reached a high of around 312K incoming visitors on December 28.

The Infrastructure You’d Need To Succeed in a Technological Race

To achieve such a cosmic feat, RTA has a strong IT infrastructure that ensures it can do all the calculations and more to adjust to the growing number of residents and visitors. It ensures they have forecasts and predictions to understand the trends and the steps they would need to take to ensure smooth transits.

Whether you operate in logistics, transport, travel, hospitality, healthcare, or finance, your organization can gain a decisive competitive advantage by leveraging the latest technologies, including AI and machine learning.

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