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Dubai International in bright 2012 start

The strong start to the year is partially due to the traffic surge caused by the holiday season, the recently-concluded Dubai Shopping Festival and the on-going hub network expansion, according to Dubai Airports.

The world’s fourth-busiest airport for international passenger and cargo looks set to achieve its 2012 target of 56.5 million passengers by the end of the year.

“It is fitting that we started a record-breaking year with record monthly passenger numbers. Our projections indicate 2012 traffic totals will reach 56.5 million, obliterating last year’s record of 51 million,” Dubai Airports chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said.

For January, Dubai Airports announced that passenger traffic reached 4.85 million passengers, surpassing the previous record of 4.72 million passengers of July 2011, and a 14 per cent increase compared to 4.25 per cent posted in January 2011. The 14 per cent upsurge is the largest month-on-month increase in 14 months.

This performance brings Dubai International’s rolling 12-month passenger numbers to 51.57 million and builds on the historic 50.98 million passengers recorded in 2011.

“With nearly five million passengers passing through its doors in January, Dubai Airport is certainly on track to surpass last years annual 51 million passenger mark — and by a wide margin,” Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, told Khaleej Times.

The continued expansion by Emirates and and low-cost carrier flydubai — the two biggest operators at Dubai International — will cause traffic to continue reaching dizzier heights as the year goes on, Ahmed added.

The AGCC continued to top the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers in January (over 203,219 passengers), followed by Western Europe (over 100,902), the Indian subcontinent (over 92,855 passengers), and Russia and the CIS (over 77,454 passengers).

However, Middle Eastern routes continued the downward trend in the New Year owing to the on-going unrest in the region, while traffic in African routes surged after months of weak performance with more than 34,909 passengers.

Spurred by the launch of Emirates’ new routes to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, South America was the strongest market in terms of percentage passenger growth in January at 71.4 per cent more, followed by Russia and the CIS at 57.3 per cent, driven by the expansion of flydubai in the region, and the AGCC 36.9 per cent more as a result of growth in Saudi Arabian traffic. Eastern Europe (20.6 per cent) and Australasia (16.7) also achieved high growth rates.

Total aircraft movements for Dubai International rose 8.4 per cent to 29,680 compared to 27,385 last January.

Cargo volumes contracted 2.6 per cent to 173,531 tonnes compared to 178,199 tonnes in January last year reflecting on-going weaker global airfreight demand and fragile consumer confidence.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com