September Passenger Traffic Tops 7 Million at Dubai International

Seven million passengers per month is fast becoming the norm at Dubai International (DXB) after September’s numbers eclipsed that total for the sixth time in nine months, according to the monthly traffic report issued today by operator Dubai Airports.

Passenger traffic at DXB passengers reached 7,094,738 compared to 6,432,654 recorded in the corresponding month last year, an increase of 10.3 per cent. Year to date, the world’s leading international hub has welcomed 62,945,091 up 7.2 per cent from the 58,696,877 recorded during the first nine months of 2015.

Eastern Europe again was the fastest-growing market in September (+23.6 per cent) thanks to additional capacity and new services launched by a number of carriers including Emirates and flydubai, followed by GCC (16.6 per cent), Asia (16.2 per cent) and the Indian Subcontinent (12.2 per cent).  India remained the top destination country (909,102 passengers), followed by the UK (522,046 passengers) and Saudi Arabia (503,977 passengers).

London was again the top destination city with 323,515 passengers followed by Doha (269,972 passengers) and Kuwait (231,457 passengers). Baku (+184.2 per cent) topped the list of cities in terms of percentage growth, followed by Boston (65.3 per cent), Calicut (63.5 per cent) and Taipei (55 per cent) due to increased capacity.

The average number of passengers per flight during the month was 213.

A total of 34,793 flights operated at DXB during the month under review compared to 34,146 movements recorded in September last year, marginally up by under 1.9 per cent. Year to date the number of flights totalled 312,169 a minor increase of 3.2 per cent compared to 302,399, recorded during the same period in 2015.

September freight volumes totalled 205,142 tonnes, down 1 per cent from the 207,315 recorded in September last year. Year to date cargo reached 1,891,419 tonnes, up 2 per cent compared to 1,853,130 tonnes recorded during the first eight months last year.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said, “Seven million passengers per month is clearly the new normal at DXB. While this is welcome news, we are even more pleased with our ability to enhance the passenger experience by using technology and process improvements to increase the flow rate through the airport. Our DXB Plus programme is designed to improve that even further as we work towards not only operating the world’s busiest airports but also the world’s best.”