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A view of the Dubai International Airport. The operator said the figure for July 2018 of 8.2 million passenger —marks the airport’s second-busiest month ever, after August 2017 when passenger traffic totalled 8.23 million. Image Credit: Courtesy: Dubai Airports

Dubai: Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport reached 8.2 million passengers, inching up 1.8 per cent over the 8.06 million recorded in the same month in 2017.

Operator Dubai Airports said the figure marks the airport’s second busiest month ever, after August 2017 when passenger traffic totalled 8.23 million.

The figure for July also brings traffic in the first seven months of 2018 to 51.9 million, up 1.6 per cent year-on-year.

In terms of growth rate, eastern Europe was the fastest growing region in July, with traffic surging 24.4 per cent, fuelled by route developments by flydubai.

It was followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, which saw an 18.3 per cent growth rate, with contributions from the Russian market and destinations such as Bishkek, Baku and Almaty.

India retained its position as the top destination country (with over one million passengers), followed by Saudi Arabia, and the UK.

London topped the list in terms of top cities served from Dubai International, with 358,201 passengers, followed by Kuwait, Mumbai, and Riyadh.

As for the cargo segment, volumes rose by 4.8 per cent year-on-year in July to reach 223,488 tonnes.

Cargo volumes in the first seven months of the year, however, fell 1.6 per cent to 1.49 million tonnes.