Inbound flights to UAE up 25%

The research examines the increase of airline passenger traffic and the most popular flight origins, with London taking the lead over other key international hubs.

By Staff Report

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Fri 17 Apr 2015, 10:49 PM

Last updated: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 11:43 PM

Dubai — Expedia.com, one of the world’s largest full service online travel sites, has released the results of data analysis examining travel growth to the UAE. 

The research examines the increase of airline passenger traffic and the most popular flight origins, with London taking the lead over other key international hubs. An interactive and comprehensive online site, Expedia.com helps millions of travellers around the world easily plan and book travel, whether for business or leisure. Also conveniently available as a mobile app, Expedia offers a wide selection of vacation destinations, cheap tickets, hotel deals, car rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination activities, attractions, services and travel apps. Expedia.com offers customers the best rates available online for all types of travel. 

Expedia senior editor, Eman Barhoumeh, said: “Expedia witnessed a notable rise of flights booked on Expedia.com to the UAE in recent years. In particular, Dubai has firmly established itself as both a key tourist destination and leading hub for business travel, as demonstrated by recent year-on-year growth of nearly 25 per cent for travel to that destination. Additionally, Abu Dhabi International Airport witnessed record breaking figures during Q1, 2015 (Abu Dhabi Airport) and we are looking forward to its expansion, which is due to provide a new capacity of 40 million passengers per year. There is also increasing consumer interest in Sharjah, so will be keeping a keen eye on passenger trends in the months ahead.”  

She added: “The UAE has traditionally been a favorite destination with British business people as well as holidaymakers seeking guaranteed sunshine. Travelers from the UK continue to make up the largest share of inbound travelers, but we are now seeing emerging development in flight bookings and searches from further afield such as Canada and the US, as the UAE becomes an increasingly popular destination.”

Flight bookings on Expedia to the UAE have experienced a strong upsurge increasing just over 25 per cent from 2013 to 2014. The most popular flight origin is London, with almost five times as many tickets sold compared with Manchester, ranking second.

Flight bookings on Expedia into Abu Dhabi have risen by approximately 50 per cent from 2013 to 2014. Bookings to Abu Dhabi are expected to continue this growth trend as Expedia has recently seen a more than 10 per cent increase in demand for that destination. This corresponds to the recent news from Abu Dhabi International Airport on the record breaking growth of passenger traffic of 20 per cent, reaching 20 million passengers last year, and similar traffic predicted by authorities for this year. Top flight origins into the capital are London and Manama. 

Bookings to Dubai International Airport have steadily expanded on the site, with a recent increase of almost 25 per cent in year-over-year. London and Manchester top the charts as leading flight origin destinations into Dubai.

— business@khaleejtimes.com


More news from