Dubai passenger traffic increased by 16.3% to 21.9 million year to date

Dubai International, the world’s second busiest airport for international passenger traffic, has registered nine straight months of double-digit growth, said a report.

The airport recorded 5.41 million passengers in April, up 18.7 per cent compared to 4.56 million, last year, according to the monthly traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports.

April was the fifth consecutive month with more than five million passengers passing through Dubai International, it stated. The year to date traffic increased by 16.3 per cent to 21.9 million compared to 18.8 million recorded in the first four months of 2012.

The top destination countries 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 leading destination cities, said the report.

The largest increase in total passenger numbers in April was recorded on the Western European routes (over 207,120 passengers), followed by the Arab Gulf Countries Council (AGCC) with more than 180,600 passengers and the Indian subcontinent (over 160,372).

The Middle Eastern routes that were affected by political instability until the beginning of 2013 recorded moderate growth in April (over 23,365), the report stated.

In terms of percentage growth, Eastern Europe topped the list (over 56.5 per cent) followed by Asia Pacific (30.7 per cent) and Asia (24.5 per cent).

Aircraft movements at Dubai International increased by 6.9 per cent to 30,469 compared to 28,503 recorded in April 2012. Year to date aircraft movements totalled 121,599, an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to 114,517 during the same period in 2012, the data rleeased by Dubai Airports said.

On the cargo sector performance for April, the report said the freight volumes increased by 7.3 per cent to 199,985 tonnes compared to 186,385 tonnes last year. The year to date cargo totalled 784,832 tonnes, up 11.5 per cent 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, the 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,” he added