Dubai still the world’s busiest int’l airport

DUBAI: Dubai International Airport said it kept its place as the world’s busiest for international passengers in 2017 even as passenger traffic grew at its slowest pace in at least nine years.

Annual traffic increased 5.5% to 88.2 million passengers, compared to 83.6 million in the previous year, operator Dubai Airports said in a statement yesterday.

It was the airport’s slowest growth rate since at least 2009, according to Reuters calculations. The operator forecast a year ago a slightly higher passenger figure of 89 million.

This year, growth will slow to around 2.4% with the airport forecasting it would handle 90.3 million passengers.

Dubai airport handles almost entirely international flights and is the hub for the Middle East’s largest airline, Emirates . It overtook London Heathrow as the busiest for international travellers in 2014. Heathrow, which also handles domestic flights, reported 78 million passengers in 2017, up 3.1%, according to its website.

Dubai has since set its sights on overtaking Atlanta and Beijing to become the world’s busiest overall in the next two to three years.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International handled 103.9 million passengers in 2017, while Beijing Capital International handled 95.8 million.

Dubai is also developing a second airport about 60km (38 miles) to the south. That airport, Al Maktoum International, will see a roughly five-fold increase in annual capacity this year to 26 million passengers.

The number of Russian passengers increased 28% to 1.3 million and Chinese travellers grew 19.4% to 2.2 million in 2017.

The UAE eased visa requirements for Russian travellers in 2017, and for Chinese passport holders in 2016.

India continued to be the single largest source market country with 12.06 million passengers using the airport, up 5.4%.

Annual cargo volumes grew 2.4% to 2.7 million tonnes.