Airport News

25th March 2014

Airport News
Dubai (DXB) edged a step closer to becoming the world's busiest international airport by 2015 when it recorded its seven successive month of double digit passenger growth in February.

“We’ve had a great start to the year and February’s traffic gains bring us one step closer to the number one position for international passenger traffic," enthuses Dubai Airports CEO, Paul Griffiths.

"With only a little more than 800,000 passengers separating Dubai International from London Heathrow during 2013, we are on track to take over the top spot by 2015."

Passenger traffic reached 5.6 million in February 2014, up 11.7% from 5 million recorded during the same month a year ago.

Traffic was boosted by network expansion primarily from home carriers flydubai and Emirates airline.

Year-to-date passenger traffic rose 13.5% to 12 million.

Regionally, the Indian subcontinent recorded the highest growth in passenger numbers (+121,794 passengers) during the period, followed by Western Europe (+117,256), AGCC (+102,217 passengers) and Asia (+66,925 passengers).

Australasia was the fastest-expanding market in terms of percentage growth (+30.5%) as a result of Emirates’ partnership with Qantas, followed by Asia (+18.4%), Eastern Europe (+17.4%) and North America (+16.2%).

India remained the top destination country (699,179 passengers) with financial capital Mumbai as the busiest destination, followed by Saudi Arabia (434,454 passengers) and the UK (405,141 passengers).