Dubai: Dubai International passenger numbers continued to increase in April, up by 5.7 per cent according to operator Dubai Airports.
More than 6.5 million travelled through the airport in April, the third time in the first four months that monthly traffic at Dubai International has surpassed 6.5 million, according to an emailed statement on Thursday.
A total of 6,510,653 passengers arrived, transferred and departed through Dubai International in April, up from 6,159,634 in April 2014.
That moves the year to date passenger numbers to 26,116,980, an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.
“We are again expecting record traffic levels at Dubai International this summer and again we will be deploying additional resources from the kerb to the boarding gates to ease the flow of passengers through our facility,” stated Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports Chief Executive.
The Indian subcontinent delivered the largest passenger number increase, 167,652 more than a year ago, followed by the Arabian Gulf states, up 92,069 passengers, followed by Western Europe with an increase of 65,175 passengers.
Eastern Europe had the highest growth rate in April, up 74.6 per cent. Dubai Airports said this was driven by flydubai’s new services to Slovakia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Croatia, and Emirates’ service to Hungary and Transavia airline to Bulgaria.
Passengers from North America increased 17.9 per cent while political and economic instability saw traffic from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States drop 27.6 per cent.
The number of aircraft landings and take offs were 33,279, 6.5 per cent more than 31,234 a year earlier. Year to date, the total number of landings and take offs are up 6 per cent to 133,493.
The average number of passengers per landing and take off was 206.2 in April, 3.3 per cent less than a year ago. The year date figure is down 2 per cent to 206.4 passengers.
The amount of freight handled through Dubai International was 204,075 tonnes in April, 3.6 per cent less than the restated 211,588 tonnes a year ago. Year to date cargo is down 4.7 per cent to 798,771 tonnes in the first four months of the year.
Cargo volumes are likely to continue to decline this year due to all freight cargo operations moving to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central last year.
