Middle East leads world airport growth figures according to ACI

ACI is the only worldwide association of airports, and has 592 member airport authorities, which operate over 1,847 airports in 174 countries. It said that double digit growth rates continued to persist for airports across the MENA region. Dubai (DXB) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) grew by 15.2% and 12.4% respectively. Preliminary traffic rankings for 2013 revealed that DXB ( pictured right) has moved up to the seventh busiest airport in the world.

Turkey also saw growth with Istanbul (IST) growing by 13.6%
Across the North African part of the region, there was also some gloomy news.
Cairo (CAI), North Africa's busiest airport and gateway to popular tourist destinations, experienced a decline of 11.4% in passenger numbers for December. However, other Northern African airports such as Algiers (ALG) and Casablanca (CMN) experienced strong growth of 8.4% and 8.1% respectively for December.
Globally, both international and domestic traffic performed above the annualized average achieving growth rates of 6.6% and 6.2% respectively. For the year as a whole, 2013 saw passenger traffic increase by 4%. This growth in air travel occured in a year that was riddled with economic challenges ranging from the cyclical slowdown in emerging markets to the lingering economic uncertainties in the euro area and the United States. 

Air freight volumes increased by over 3% for the month of December. Despite a global economy that remained sluggish for most of 2013, air freight markets still inched up by 1% in 2013 as compared to 2012. On an annualized basis, international freight traffic increased by 0.9% whereas domestic freight increased by 1.2% on the year. With an overall rise in business confidence coupled with the recent improvements in international trade, the recent rise in air freight volumes signals a potential revival. 


The UAE was also the star performer as far as the region’s freight activities went.
According to ACI, Dubai (DXB) occupied the lion's share of air freight traffic in the Middle East region at over 2.4 million metric tonnes so the overall regional growth rate is directly affected by freight activity at this airport.
The region as a whole grew by over 5% in 2013. While other major airports faced declines in freight traffic, Dubai (DXB) posted a gain of 7.4% on the year. Abu Dhabi, the third ranked airport in terms of freight volume, reported double digit gains gain of 24.4% in freight traffic.