Dubai International has retained its title as the world’s number one airport for international passengers with annual traffic reaching 83.6 million passengers in 2016, according to the annual traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports today.
DXB’s annual traffic in 2016 totalled 83,654,250 passengers, compared to 78,014,838 in 2015, up 7.2 per cent. The surge of travellers during the holiday season boosted monthly traffic in December to 7,706,351, up 9.3 per cent compared to 7,053,243 recorded in December 2015.
During 2016 a number of new airlines, including Nepal Airlines and Rossiya launched services to DXB, while 11 new passenger destinations were added to the hub following network expansion by flydubai, Emirates and other carriers.
India continued to lead as Dubai’s single largest destination country in 2016 with 11,440,215 passengers in 2016, up 10.1 per cent compared to 10,391,376 recorded in 2015. Saudi Arabia took the second spot with 6,086,158 passengers (+11.3 per cent) just marginally overtaking the UK at 6,061,342 (+6.7 per cent). Among cities, London took the top spot with 3,751,596 passengers, while Doha clocked 2,999,762 passengers followed by Mumbai with 2,357,103 passengers.
DXB also leads the way globally in terms of the average number of passengers per flight which reached 209 during 2016, up 4 per cent from the same period in 2015.
Aircraft movements in 2016 reached 418,220 compared to 406,705 in 2015, up 2.8 per cent.
Cargo volumes totalled 2,592,454 tonnes in 2016 up 3.4 per cent compared to 2,506,092 recorded during 2015.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, “After emerging as the world’s number one airport for international passengers in 2014, DXB has firmly established itself as the leader in that category. With our forecast for 89 million passengers in 2017, DXB is closing the gap on Atlanta and Beijing for the top spot in overall traffic. Our focus in 2017 and beyond will be on making the airport experience even more delightful, engaging and comfortable for our customers. Our DXB Plus programme will see a series of unique initiatives introduced at the airport to make DXB not only the busiest but also the world’s best international airport.”
