Dubai: Dubai International reported a 7.7 per cent increase in the number of passengers travelling through the airport in January compared to a year ago, management Dubai Airports said in a statement on Monday.
A total of 6,895,668 passengers used the airport in January 2015 compared to 6,400,706 a year earlier.
“Considering that Dubai International is projected to welcome over 79 million passengers in 2015, there is no better way to begin a year than with a record month,” stated Dubai Airports Chief Paul Griffiths.
Eastern Europe was the fastest-expanding market in terms of percentage growth, up 71.9 per cent, followed by North America, up 16.9 per cent, the Indian Subcontinent, up 12.2 per cent and Asia increasing 10.5 per cent. Visitors from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States continued their decline, falling 22.7 per cent “due to the political and economic stability in the region.”
Traffic on Australasian routes fell by 1.6 per cent.
The number of aircraft landings and take-offs totalled 34,643 in January, 6.2 per cent more than the 32,625 in January 2014.
The amount of cargo handled fell by 5.5 per cent to 186,230 tonnes, compared to 197,021 in January. Freighter operations moved to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) last May.
