Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport reached record levels in March. According to a report released by Dubai Airports this Monday, the airport handled traffic of 5.8 million passengers from all over the world.
Compared to a year ago, the passenger traffic has increased with 20.6% or exactly 1 million. In addition, this is the fourth month in a row to mark a double-digit rise.
The year to date traffic has also increased with 15.6% or with 16.5 million. In contrast, during Q1 2012 it amounted to barely 14.3 million. Also, the total number of aircraft movements in March for Dubai International Airport was over 31,700. That is nearly 6% up from March 2012 when they managed to hit almost 29,300. As a result, the year to date movements jumped from 86,014 to 91,130 or with 8.3%.
The busiest routes were the ones to Western Europe. A big part of them were operated by carriers Emirates Airlines and flydubai. However, the fastest growing markets were in Eastern Europe. The traffic coming from there increased with nearly 68%. That can be explained with the two carriers’ new services in Poland (Emirates) and Macedonia (flydubai). These airlines are also growing with faster rates compared to their competition. The second fastest expanding route is the Asian Pacific with 26.5%.
Even the amount of cargos at Dubai International Airport has jumped this March by a little under 15%, reaching 213,248 tonnes.
According to Dubai Airport’s CEO, Paul Griffiths, the first quarter in general was extremely successful for the airport. Griffiths states that this was mainly due to the launching of the first A380 facility in the world. The CEO adds that A380 aircrafts has bigger passenger capacity and that contributes to the monthly record figures of the airport. Presently, A380 aircrafts make 7,259 flights to nearly 30 destinations.
Moreover, Griffiths expressed confidence that the passenger traffic will continue to increase over Q2 2013. He explains that this will be possible thanks to the current expansion projects at Dubai International Airport.
What these figures actually show is that Dubai has become one of the most popular travel destinations, as well as a busy global crossroad.
