Dubai, UAE, 2014-12-4 — /Travel PR News/ — Passenger traffic at Dubai International rose 5.7 per cent in October putting the airport on track to eclipse the 71 million passenger mark by year-end, according to the latest traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports today.
Passenger traffic in October totalled 5,989,007 compared to 5,667,698 recorded in the corresponding month last year, an increase of 5.7 per cent. Year to date traffic rose 6.1 per cent to 58,411,554 compared to 55,046,863 recorded during the same period in 2013.
Aircraft movements grew 1.6 per cent to 32,798, up marginally from the 32, 279 recorded during October 2013. Year to date movements totalled 290,779 compared to 305,596 in the same period last year, a contraction of 4.8 per cent largely due to the shift of all pure cargo flights as well as general aviation to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) earlier this year and the temporary reduction of flights experienced during the 80 day runway refurbishment project earlier this year. Spurred by an ongoing increase in the number of wide bodied aircraft servicing the airport, the number of passengers per flight was 192 during October unchanged from October 2013, while the year-to-date average was 212 passengers per flight, up 6.5 per cent from the same period last year.
The Indian subcontinent was the top market in terms of growth in overall passenger numbers (+121,669 passengers) closely followed by Western Europe (113,032 passengers), Asia (+73,675) and Africa (31,405). In terms of percentage growth* Eastern Europe (+22 per cent) was the strongest market followed by Asia (15.4 per cent) while declines were recorded in Russia & CIS (-8.2 per cent), AGGC (-3.7 per cent) and Middle East (-3.2 per cent).
Freight volumes decreased 6.2 per cent in October with 195,824 tonnes passing through the facility compared to 208,695 tonnes recorded during the same month last year due to the move of freighter operations to DWC. Year-to-date cargo traffic totalled 1,959,108 tonnes compared to 2,002,291 tonnes recorded in the first 10 months of 2013, down 2.2 per cent.
“We are on track to exceed 71 million passengers by year-end which is a remarkable number when you consider we lost the services of one or our runways for almost three months,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “We are neck-and-neck with London Heathrow in our race for the number one position coming down the home stretch. It is sure to be a photo finish.”
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