Dubai: Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport was up 23.2 per cent from a year earlier to 6.2 million people in May, according to a statement on Thursday from Dubai Airports, which owns and manages operations of the facility.
In the first five months of the year, passenger traffic at Dubai’s main airport rose 9.4 per cent to 32. 38 million people, according to the operator.
“The summer peak is upon us and we are thrilled to have both of our upgraded runways in full operation. We expect record traffic levels and have boosted our staff levels…,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in a statement.
The number of flights rose 48.8 per cent from a year earlier to 34,017 in May. Flight movements reached 167,510 year-to-date, up 12.6 per cent from the same period last year.
In terms of growth in overall passenger numbers, Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region, up 85.4 per cent, driven mainly by flydubai’s new services to Slovakia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Croatia, Emirates’ service to Hungary and Transavia airline to Bulgaria, according to the operator. This was followed by the Indian subcontinent (33.8 per cent), Gulf Cooperation Council (31.1 per cent) and North America (28 per cent), where Emirates boosted capacity on many destinations and launched a new route to Chicago.
The Indian subcontinent outperformed the rest of the regions in terms of total passenger numbers, (+372,587 passengers), followed by the GCC (+248,919 passengers), and Western Europe (172,830).
Freight volume, meanwhile, dropped 1 per cent to 1.01 million tonnes during the first five months of the year, but rose 15.5 per cent to 216,712 tonnes year-on-year in May.
