Dubai hits new highs with passenger records

Dubai International handled a total of 4,714,746 passengers in June, a robust growth of 16.0 per cent from the 4,065,809 who passed through the airport in June 2011. The year to date traffic reached 27,931,639  up 13.7 per cent from 24,567,818 in the first half of 2011. The average monthly passenger traffic recorded in the first six months of the year stood at 4.65 million compared to 4.09 million during the corresponding period in 2011.

Aircraft movements in June totalled 27,428 up 5.1 per cent from 26,101 registered during the same period in 2011. Year to date aircraft movements totalled 170,249, an increase of 6.8 per cent compared to 159,372 recorded during the first half of 2011.

In terms of top destinations served by Dubai International during the period under review, the five countries with the greatest passenger volumes were India, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Pakistan and the US. The Arabian Gulf countries continued to top the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers (+180,397 passengers), followed by Western Europe (+124,690), and the Indian subcontinent (+82,543). June was the first time in nearly a year that Middle Eastern routes registered positive growth (+24,785 passengers).

South America has remained the strongest market in terms of percentage passenger growth* (+140.9 per cent) as a result of new Emirates services to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, followed by Russia and CIS (+54.4 per cent), and Australasia (+26.3 per cent).

During the first half of 2012, air cargo volumes rose to 1,086,456 tonnes compared to 1,062,724 tonnes during the same period in 2011, an increase of 2.2 per cent. In June, Dubai International handled a total of 194,992 tonnes of freight compared to 183,365 tonnes in June 2011, an increase of 6.3 per cent.

“Our record first half had some interesting story lines, highlighted by the launch of 12 new routes, the addition of four new airlines and a surge in traffic on routes to Saudi Arabia, USA, Qatar and Australia,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “On the service side we boosted our May I Help You staff compliment to 500 people, to provide additional assistance to customers to speed their journey through the terminals. We expanded our transfer areas to ease connections and we launched new high-tech Information Zones and a new downloadable app called myDXB,  both of which provide information on flights and gate numbers as well as way-finding to locate customer-facing services.

“We are on track to meet the annual projected traffic of  56.5 million passengers, which will bring us very close to Dubai International’s operational capacity of 60 million passengers per annum,” added Griffiths. “The addition of Concourse 3 during the first quarter of 2013 is well timed to boost our capacity to 75 million while upping the game on our already high levels of customer service.”

Analyst Saj Ahmad said: “''Dubai International is storming ahead in passenger traffic thanks in large part to its big tenants in Emirates and flydubai. The airport will handsomely surpass the record set in 2011 and we could easily see the second half of the year being stronger than the first - that may well push traffic beyond 58m passengers which would be truly historic given the global economic pressures.

“Dubai has set itself apart as the centre of the world and this growth looks set to continue, despite claims to the contrary. With the GCC still actively showing both high demand and strong yields, the growth at the airport will almost certainly mean a heightened push to get Al Maktoum Airport operational a lot faster than current planning."