Dubai: Dubai International has seen through nearly 60 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, operator Dubai Airports said on Wednesday.
The airport handled 58,696,877 passengers in the nine months to September 30, up 12 per cent compared to 52,422,547 in the same period a year ago.
Dubai International, the world’s busiest airport for international passengers in 2014, is becoming increasingly busier as home carriers Emirates and flydubai expand and new foreign carriers start flights to the airport.
For the month of September, passenger traffic was 6,432,654, up 8.2 per cent compared to 5,942,628 in September 2014.
Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths said the year to date numbers were “robust” and expected the trend to continue for the rest of the year.
“With major events such as the Dubai Airshow lined up over the coming months, we expect the trend to continue,” he said in a statement.
Strongest market
The number of landings and take-offs this year have risen 17.2 per cent to 302,399. In September they were up 10.6 per cent to 34,146.
Dubai Airports said Eastern Europe was its strongest market in terms of passenger percentage growth, up 62.7 per cent, followed by the Arab Gulf states, up 18.4 per cent, which it said was driven by growth in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. North American passenger numbers rose 17.4 per cent, largely due to additional daily flights operated by Emirates to New York and Seattle.
Dubai International handled 1,853,130 tonnes of cargo in the first nine months of the year, up 2.6 per. In September it handled 207,315 tonnes, up 0.3 per cent.
