Special Features
Dubai International passenger traffic climbs 19% in April
For the fifth consecutive month more than five million passengers passed through the airport, which is now the second busiest in the world for international traffic. Dubai International handled 5,418,946 passengers in April, an 18.7% increase compared to 4,566,673 during the same period in 2012. It marked the ninth straight month of double-digit growth for the airport, as well as its fifth consecutive month handling more than five million passengers.So far this year passenger traffic at the airport has increased by 16.3% to 21,905,363 compared to 18,828,279 recorded in the first four months of 2012.
The top destination countries for the airport in April included India with a total of 672,557 passengers, followed by the UK (419,053) and Saudi Arabia (405,695) while Doha (207,146), London (201,587) and Jeddah (151,517) were the top destination cities.
The largest increase in total passenger numbers was recorded on the Western European routes (up 207,120 passengers), followed by the GCC (up 180,600), and the Indian subcontinent (up 160,372).
In terms of percentage growth, Eastern Europe led the way (up 56.5%) followed by Asia Pacific (up 30.7%) and Asia (up 24.5%).
Freight volumes also increased at the airport in April, rising 7.3% to 199,985 tonnes compared to 186,385 tonnes in the same month in 2012.
The year-to-date cargo totalled 784,832 tonnes, up 11.5% to 703,826 tonnes during the first four months last year.
"It is very clear that our growth rate has picked up and that should continue at a similar pace into the next quarter and beyond. Given the central role aviation plays in a country’s GDP, this also bodes well for the increasingly robust local economy," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
"Accordingly we are continually increasing capacity at Dubai International, the most recent example of which was the opening of the first phase of expansion at Terminal 2." Dubai International became the world’s second busiest airport for international passenger traffic in 2012, and now trails only London’s Heathrow.
