UAE air traffic continues to witness growth but slow going for secondary airports

However, several of the UAE’s secondary airports saw declines in the number of movements.
The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has released figures from all of the airports – and overflights.
The figures showed air traffic movements grew at a rate of 5.1 percent in January 2014 compared to the same month last year. The total air traffic movements in January were 68,620 with an average of 2,214 air traffic movements per day.
Unsurprisingly, Dubai ranked first with 31,995 air traffic movements.
Overflights stood next at 12,072 air traffic movements.
Abu Dhabi ranked third with 10,664 air traffic movements.
According to the report, air traffic movements in Sharjah International Airport came next with 5,633 movements.
Domestic flights within the UAE saw quite a dramatic increase with local flights between UAE airports accounting for 5,634 movements.
Some UAE airports demonstrated a great potential for growth. Fujairah International Airport (pictured below)  for example witnessed just 96 movements for the month, while Ras Al Khaimah International Airport had only 53 air traffic movements and Al Ain Airport had 177.
One airport that will be expected to see significant growth as the year moves on is Al Maktoum International Airport . It showed 1,666 movements for January.