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Dubai Int’l passenger traffic up 19% in Feb

Passenger traffic crossed the 4.5 million mark for the second consecutive month in 2012 while freight volumes witnessed an upturn after months of flat growth, according to the monthly traffic report issued on Tuesday.

“Traffic growth in the region is still showing remarkable resilience and growth led by Emirates and flydubai has been near relentless,”Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, toldKhaleej Times. Passenger traffic in February reached 4.56 million passengers compared to 3.83 million recorded in the same month in 2011. This follows the airport’s record traffic of over 4.8 million passengers in January, propelling the year to date (February) passenger traffic by 16.4 per cent to 9.41 million.“February marks the twelfth consecutive month with passenger traffic exceeding the four million mark, and with the growth expected to maintain momentum in the coming months we are well on track to achieve the targeted 56.5 million passenger traffic for 2012,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

“The completion of the Concourse 3 project by the end of 2012 is in line with this forecast and will expand Dubai International’s capacity at the right time, ensuring that our growth continues unhindered,” Griffiths said.

The AGCC continued to top the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers in February (150,643 passengers), followed by the Subcontinent (140,322), Western Europe (136,320), and Africa (110,561 passengers).

The downward trend on Middle Eastern routes continued in February (23,804 passengers) because of the instability in the region. In terms of percentage passenger growth, South America has remained the strongest market (151.4 per cent) owing to Emirates airline’s new routes to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, followed by Russia and CIS (41.7 per cent) mainly due to the expansion of flydubai operations.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com