Passenger traffic at Dubai International touches 7m

Eastern Europe was the fastest-growing market, followed by GCC countries, Asia and India

Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport in September reached 7.09 million, up 10.3 per cent compared to 6.4 million recorded in the corresponding month last year.

This year the airport has welcomed 62.9 million passengers to date, up 7.2 per cent from the 58.69 million recorded during the first nine months of 2015.

Eastern Europe was the fastest-growing market in September (up 23.6 per cent), thanks to additional capacity and new services launched by a number of carriers including Emirates and flydubai.

It was followed by the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.

India remained the top destination country (909,102 passengers), followed by the UK and Saudi Arabia.

London was again the top destination city with 323,515 passengers, followed by Doha and Kuwait. Baku (up 184.2 per cent) topped the list of cities in terms of percentage growth, followed by Boston, Calicut and Taipei.

A total of 34,793 flights operated at Dubai International during the month, up by 1.9 per cent compared to September last year.

Freight volumes

In the year to date, the number of flights reached 312,169, a slight increase of 3.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2015. The freight volumes in September totalled 205,142 tonnes, down 1 per cent from the 207,315 recorded in same month last year. The cargo moved this year to date reached 1,891,419 tonnes, up 2 per cent compared to the first eight months of last year.