Dubai airport traffic touches five million
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Dubai International Airport recorded over five million in airport passenger traffic for the month of July 2012 which is a first. According to Dubai Airports’ monthly traffic report, 5.006m passengers used the airport in July – a 6% increase on the 4.72 recorded in the same period in 2011. The previous high for monthly traffic at the airport was 4.85 million passengers recorded in January this year.
“This is yet another record for Dubai International and one that we had anticipated based on the growth trends in the first half of the year,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “Since 2009 average monthly traffic at Dubai International has skyrocketed from just under 3.5 million in 2009 to over 4.7 million in 2012. This clearly signals our emergence as a leading global hub.”
Data from the report show that traffic reached 32.94m for the first seven months of the year, up 12.4% from 29.3m in the corresponding period in 2011. The largest regional traffic growth in July in terms of total passenger numbers was recorded on routes to and from Western Europe, which clocked an increase of 106,926 passengers.
Regions with the highest percentage growth included South America (82.6%), Russia and CIS (38.6%), and Australasia (16.4%). However the airport operator said the impact of traffic fluctuations during Ramadan were felt on traffic from the ArabGulf countries (+ 0.1%) and wider Middle East (- 9.2%).
“July’s traffic volumes mean that an average of 112 passengers passed through our airport every minute of every day,” Griffiths noted. “By 2018, when we expect to complete the expansion of Dubai International, that will soar to just under 170 passengers per minute.”
The government of Dubai is investing US$7.8bn to upgrade its airport infrastructure in a bid to boost capacity to 90m passengers per year by 2018. The next milestone is Concourse 3, the world’s first purpose-built A380 facility, which will boost capacity to 75 million passengers when it opens in 2013.