DWC Q1 traffic up ahead of expansion

Dubai’s second hub, Al Maktoum International Airport, recorded marginal passenger traffic growth in the first quarter of the year, with the biggest increase coming from CIS countries, ahead of plans for a terminal expansion in 2018.

Passenger traffic for the first three months of the year grew 0.2 per cent to 334,455 travellers from the same period a year earlier, operator Dubai Airports said in a statement yesterday. Travel at DWC, as the airport is known, was driven mainly by the increase in Russian charter flights to the airport after the UAE waived visa requirements for Russian travellers, Dubai Airports said.

Dubai, the largest aviation hub in the Middle East and Africa, is planning an almost five-fold increase in airport capacity to 26 million passengers by the third quarter of 2018.

Eastern Europe was the second biggest market for DWC, followed by the Middle East.

Some of the top destination cities were Moscow, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.

A total of 15 carriers operated an average of 153 flights weekly to more than 30 international destinations across 10 countries from DWC in the first quarter.

Cargo volumes rose 8.9 per cent, with DWC handling 229,831 tonnes of freight between January and March.

The airport is also home to 20 scheduled cargo operators that fly to as many as 68 destinations around the world.