Dubai International remains world’s busiest for international traffic in 2018

UAE. Dubai International handled 89.1 million passengers in 2018, a 1% rise year-on-year. The airport retains its position as the world’s busiest for international traffic for a fifth consecutive year.

The eight-million passenger mark was breached twice during the year in July (8.2 million) and August (8.4 million) making the latter the busiest month in Dubai International’s 58-year history.

India remained the top destination country by passenger numbers, with traffic for the year reaching 12,279,485 – propelled mainly by Mumbai, Delhi and Cochin. Saudi Arabia was number two with 6,471,142 customers, followed closely by the UK with 6,284,771. Other destination countries of note include the USA (3,205,524) and the fast-growing markets of China (3,512,075) with 6% growth and Russia (1,533,654) which grew 14.5%.

The top three cities by passenger volume were London (3,817,889 customers), Mumbai (2,540,750) and Kuwait (2,194,576).

Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region with double-digit growth of 16.7%, followed by the CIS at 12.9% and Africa at 9.8%.

Dubai Airports said that it had also enjoyed “a banner year for customer service with shorter wait times and new retail and food & beverage offerings”, which CEO Paul Griffiths comments on in the video on this page.

Dubai Duty Free’s 4.3% rise in sales outstripped passenger growth at Dubai International, as airport and retailer delivered another record year.
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