Dubai Airport Reports Traffic Surge

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

29 September 2010

Dubai Airports has reported a 21.5% surge in year-on-year cargo growth and a 6.8% rise in international passenger traffic in its August traffic results, published on September 23.

After a record month in July, August passenger numbers fell just short of the 4 million mark, at 3,987,184, up on the same period last year when strong traffic growth saw 3,734,682 passengers pass through the facility. Year-to-date passenger traffic is up 14.7% as 30,849,555 million passengers passed through Dubai International compared to 26,900,736 during the corresponding period last year.

During August the largest increases in total passenger numbers were recorded on routes to and from Western Europe (+84,953 passengers), Asia (+65,210 passengers) and the Indian subcontinent (+52,538 passengers). The largest percentage passenger traffic expansion was seen on routes to and from Eastern Europe (217%), Asia (25%), Australasia (14%) and Russia & CIS (14%). Passenger numbers on Middle Eastern routes fell 7%, largely due to the affects of Ramadan.

Cargo volumes grew an impressive 21.5% to 198,543 tonnes in August compared to 163,427 tonnes during the same month in 2009 spurred by increased economic activity in Asia and other regional markets. It was the eleventh consecutive month of double-digit growth. Year-to-date cargo volumes total 1,498,244 tonnes compared to 1,198,546 tonnes during the same period in 2009, up 25%.

Commenting, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said: “Growth continues from the very strong base that was established last year and is largely the result of the rapid expansion of flydubai, which is now the second largest source of passenger traffic at Dubai International, and the broadening of Emirates’s already impressive network with the addition of new destinations in Europe, Africa and Asia. Over the past 12 months we have seen our rolling passenger total rise to 45 million which puts us on track to meet our projection for 46 million passengers this year.”

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