Dubai airport passenger traffic up 8.9 percent in H1

Dubai airport passenger traffic up 8.9 percent in H1

Dubai Airport remains world's fourth busiest airport with passenger traffic recorded 4.1 million in the first half of the year, compared to 3.8 million in the same period in 2010 - Reuters

July 25, 2011 11:34 by Reuters

Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport rose 8.9 percent in the first half of the year despite high fuel costs and increased economic uncertainty in the Europe and the U.S., Dubai Airports said on Monday.

The world’s fourth busiest airport handled 24.6 million passengers up from 22.6 million passengers in the first six months of last year, it said in a statement.

Average monthly passenger traffic in the first half of 2011 stands at 4.1 million compared with 3.8 million in the same period last year.

“As the numbers clearly suggest, robust passenger traffic growth continues despite high fuel prices and growing economic uncertainty in Europe and the U.S,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports.

“Our planned $7.8 billion expansion of Dubai International is well-timed to accommodate the expected average annual growth of 7.2 percent over the next ten years,” he added

Year-to-date aircraft movements rose 6.2 percent to 159,372 while air cargo volumes edged 0.3 percent higher to 1.1 million tonnes of freight.

Passenger numbers at Dubai International Airport are set to exceed 75 million by 2015, Dubai Airports said last month.

Passenger numbers totalled 47.2 million last year and numbers should reach 52.2 million, up 11 percent on 2011, it said in January. (Reporting by Jason Benham, Editing by Dinesh Nair)