UAE. Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport surged +10.3% year-on-year in September.
Dubai Airports data showed that over seven million passengers were handled during the month (7,094,738), up from 6,432,654 in September 2015.
It is the sixth time in nine months that the airport has handled over seven million travellers.
Between January to September, passenger numbers increased +7.2% year-on-year to 62,945,091.
Eastern Europe was again the fastest-growing market in September, with passengers from the region increasing +23.6%. Dubai Airports attributed that growth to additional capacity and new services launched by a number of carriers.
The next-largest market was the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), with +16.6% passenger growth, followed by Asia at +16.2%. The Indian subcontinent followed with +12.2%.
India remained the top destination country, with 909,102 passengers, followed by the UK with 522,046, and Saudi Arabia with 503,977.
London was again the top destination city with 323,515 passengers. Doha and Kuwait were next with 269,972 and 231,457 passengers respectively.
The cities with the largest percentage growth of passengers were Baku (+184.2%), Boston (+65.3%), Calicut (+63.5%) and Taipei (+55%), due to increased capacity.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: “Seven million passengers per month is clearly the new normal at [the airport]. While this is welcome news, we are even more pleased with our ability to enhance the passenger experience by using technology and process improvements to increase the flow rate through the airport. Our DXB Plus programme is designed to improve that even further as we work towards not only operating the world’s busiest airports but also the world’s best.”
