Dubai: Passenger traffic at the Dubai International airport surpassed the five million passenger mark in July for the first time in its history, as traffic jumped six per cent compared to the same month last year, airport’s operator, Dubai Airports, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The airport handled a total of 5,006,155 passengers in July this year compared to 4,724,109 in July 2011 with traffic boosted by Western Europe and Africa growth, according to the monthly traffic report issued by Dubai Airports. Whereas, year to date traffic reached 32,937,794 up 12.4 per cent over the 29,291,927 recorded in the corresponding period last year.
“July’s traffic volumes mean that an average of 112 passengers passed through our airport every minute of every day. By 2018, when we expect to complete the expansion of the airport, that will soar to just under 170 passengers per minute. That is why we are investing $7.8 billion [Dh28.6 billion] in the future of this airport. In turn that investment will drive an increase in aviation’s contributions to Dubai’s GDP from the current $22 billion to 45.4 billion in 2020,” Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said in a statement.
In terms of cargo volumes Dubai International surged 6.2 per cent in July to 204,510 tons of air freight compared to 192,538 tons recorded during the same period in 2011.
“Despite pressures surrounding the unrest in Syria as well as the month of Ramadan, for Dubai airport to cater for five million passengers in a single month, this points to robust demand for travel via the city as well as expansion strength led by flydubai and Emirates,” aviation analyst, Saj Ahmad of StrategicAero Research told Gulf News.
“As the two main incumbents driving traffic growth at the airport, one has to wonder whether growth next year will outstrip capacity and if so, is there going to be a concerted effort to launch greater flights out of DWC-Al Maktoum International Airport when it opens to passengers in 2013,” he added.
