Dubai International traffic soars to 13.2% for 2012
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Dubai International has taken over as the world’s third ranked airport for international passenger numbers, moving ahead of Hong Kong International Airport in global rankings.
According to annual traffic report issued today by Dubai Airports, passenger traffic surged 13.2% to 57,684,550 in 2012, up from 50,977,960 passengers recorded during 2011.
The 2012 passenger traffic also exceeded Dubai Airports’ forecast at the start of the year of 56.5-million by more than one million passengers. The year-end numbers were augmented by 5,320,961 passengers in December 2012, 13.4% higher than the 4,690,726 passengers recorded in December 2011 and the second month the airport has exceeded the million passenger traffic mark.
Aircraft movements for 2012 reached 344,245 movements, up 5.5% from 326,318 movements in 2011. Regionally, South America was the fastest expanding market in terms of percentage growth in 2012 (+99.4%). The Russia & CIS region followed in second place (+36.9%), Australasia (+21.9%) in third spot and GCC fourth (+19.4%). Finally, North American passenger traffic grew 18.6%, making it the fifth fastest growing region.
India remained Dubai International’s single biggest country destination in terms of passenger numbers. Total passenger traffic rose 7.4% year-on-year to 7.34 million passengers in 2012.
“We now have London’s Heathrow and the number one spot firmly within our sights. The opening of Concourse A has given us room to maintain our strong growth into the new year, with a forecast of 65.4 million passengers in 2013,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.