Dubai: Passenger numbers at the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, Dubai International, rose 4.4 per cent in October, operator Dubai Airports said on Wednesday.
A total of 6,250,810 passengers passed through the airport gates compared to 5,989,007 a year go, according to an emailed statement. Year to October 31 passenger numbers are up 11.2 per cent to 64,947,687.
“Traffic continues its steady climb as we approach the end of what will be another record year for both cargo and passenger numbers,” said Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths.
The Indian subcontinent was the largest source market for the airport, with 87,015 passengers travelling to and from the region in October. Western Europe closely followed with 80,047 passengers.
But Eastern Europe was the biggest market in terms of percentage growth, up 55.4 per cent in October. North America was the second largest, up by 19.4 per cent.
The top five destinations for passenger numbers were India, UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the US.
In October, the airport saw 34,917 aircraft landings and takeoffs, an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier. So far this year the airport has seen 337,316, up 16 per cent, as of October 31.
The number of passengers per aircraft landing or takeoff in October was 188 with the year to date figure at 202, which Dubai Airports said was driven by home carrier Emirate’s wide-body fleet.
Freight handled in October climbed 7.6 per cent to 215,714 tonnes. Year to date freight handled is up 3.1 per cent to 2,068,844.
