Airport News
Dubai International Airport (DBX) has announced that it achieved double-digit growth in September 2012 with over 4.7 million passengers passing through the terminal.
Passenger traffic reached 4,780,394 last month, representing a 12.8% increase on the same month last year and maintaining DBX’s record of seven months of double digit growth in the first nine months of 2012. Year to date traffic has risen by 13.4% to 42,565,340 compared to 37,547,744 in the same period in 2011.
Western Europe recorded the largest increase in total passenger numbers in September, followed by the Indian subcontinent, the AGCC and Africa. Contraction in traffic on Middle Eastern routes continued in September as a result of the ongoing situation in certain parts of the region.
The strongest markets in terms of percentage passenger growth were South America (+106.3%) driven by new Emirates airline’s operations to destinations there, followed by Russia and CIS (+27.7%), Australasia (+20.6%) and North America (+20.1%) as both demand and capacity increased on routes to Dallas, Seattle and Washington that were launched during the year.
Aircraft movements in September increased by 3.9% to 27,909 from 26,860 recorded during the same month in 2011. The year to date movements totalled 253,973, up 6.2% to 239,243 movements between January and September 2011.
Dubai International handled 193,261 tonnes of cargo in September, an increase of 9.1% over 177,128 tonnes recorded during the same period in 2011 and marks the highest monthly increase since October 2010. The year to date freight volumes reached 1,674,997 tonnes compared to 1,615,172 tonnes handled during the corresponding period last year, an increase of 3.7%.
“So far it’s been a very good year for Dubai Airports and we have had a great start to the last quarter with a rush of travellers attending a number of international events such as the recently concluded Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj, the World Energy Forum and the ongoing Eid in Dubai celebrations. With the Emirates airline Dubai Rugby Sevens and Dubai International Film Festival lined up in Dubai’s calendar over the next two months, we expect to see the robust growth continue through the remainder of the year,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said.
