Dubai: Dubai International emerged as the world’s busiest airport for international passenger traffic during the first quarter of this year, with 18,361,820 passengers travelling through the airport over the period. London Heathrow had 16,035,600 passengers pass through it during the same period.
The airport, home to Emirates, took the lead over London Heathrow in the first two months of the year as the world’s busiest airport for international passenger traffic.
Over 6.2 million passengers used Dubai International in March, up 7.5 per cent from the 5.8 million passengers in the comparative period last year, while London Heathrow saw a 2.8 per cent decline with 5.7 million passengers over the same period.
It is the third time in four months that Dubai International has recorded monthly traffic higher than six million, according to Dubai Airports, which released the traffic data on Monday.
The Indian subcontinent once again registered the highest passenger number growth in March, up 112,953 passengers, with western Europe seeing 75,283 passengers. Australasia was the fastest expanding marker in terms of percentage growth, up 21.9 per cent, which Dubai Airports attributed to the Emirates-Qantas partnership that began a year ago.
India was the top destination with 751,390 passengers in March, followed by Saudi Arabia at 518,555 and the UK at 460,529.
The number of aircraft landings and take-offs increased to 32,849, up 3.6 per cent in March. Total movements over the first quarter were 96,694, up 3.9 per cent.
Freight volumes reached 228,154 tonnes, a 6.7 increase on March last year. First quarter volumes rose 5 per cent to 613,876 tonnes.
