Dubai International airport has witnessed monthly traffic of more than 5 million passengers continuously for the sixth consecutive month.
Passenger traffic touched 5,218,832 in May, compared to the 4,388,614 that it reached during the same month in 2012, marking a growth of 18.9%, according to a traffic report released by operator Dubai Airports.
The continuing double-digit rise in the last few months also helped Dubai International to accommodate traffic of to 27,124,195 passengers in the first five months of 2013, up 16.8% over 23,216,893 passengers visited in the same period last year.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said that the airport managed ten straight months of double-digit growth but it is going to get busier as the annual summer travel season coincides with the holy month of Ramadan.
“In anticipation of the rush we have launched a number of initiatives, including rerouting some of the ground transportation and increasing the airport’s seating capacity,” Griffiths said.
As a result of airlines Emirates’ and flydubai’s expanding networks, Western Europe topped the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers at 208,393, which was followed by AGCC with 189,810 passengers and Indian sub-continent with 131,364 passengers.
Australia and Saudi Arabia are among the top two fastest growing destinations from Dubai International airport with 50% and 40% rises in passenger traffic respectively, while India continued to be the top destination by total passenger numbers at 728,259 in May.
Percentage-wise, growth in traffic has been high for Eastern Europe with a significant 87.3%, followed by Australasia at 45.6% and Asia Pacific at 29.5%, revealed the report.
Total aircraft movements at the airport touched 31,121 in May 2013, up 10% over the corresponding period last year when they were 28,304, while the year-to-date movements peaked 6.9% over the first five months of 2012.
The increase in Emirates A380s pushed the average passengers per aircraft movement to 186 in May, which is 4.9% higher compared to the same month last year.
Freight movement has gone up by 11.9% to 209,985 tonnes during the month compared to 187,638 tonnes last year, while the year-to-date cargo volumes jumped by 11.6% with a total of 994,817 tonnes, as against 891,464 tonnes for the same period in 2012.
