DXB Extends Its Lead as #1 Airport for International Passengers

Caps off 2016 with a record 83.6 million passengers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dubai International has retained its title as the world’s number one
airport for international passengers with annual traffic reaching 83.6
million passengers in 2016, according to the annual traffic report
issued by operator Dubai
Airports today.

DXB’s annual traffic in 2016 totalled 83,654,250 passengers, compared to
78,014,838 in 2015, up 7.2 per cent. The surge of travellers during the
holiday season boosted monthly traffic in December to 7,706,351, up 9.3
per cent compared to 7,053,243 recorded in December 2015.

During 2016 a number of new airlines, including Nepal Airlines and
Rossiya, launched services to DXB, while 11 new passenger destinations
were added to the hub following network expansion by flydubai, Emirates
and other carriers.

India continued to lead as Dubai’s single largest destination country in
2016 with 11,440,215 passengers in 2016, up 10.1 per cent compared to
10,391,376 recorded in 2015. Saudi Arabia took the second spot with
6,086,158 passengers (+11.3 per cent) just marginally overtaking the UK
at 6,061,342 (+6.7 per cent). Among cities, London took the top spot
with 3,751,596 passengers, while Doha clocked 2,999,762 passengers
followed by Mumbai with 2,357,103 passengers.

DXB also leads the way globally in terms of the average number of
passengers per flight which reached 209 during 2016, up 4 per cent from
the same period in 2015.

Aircraft movements in 2016 reached 418,220 compared to 406,705 in 2015,
up 2.8 per cent.

Cargo volumes totalled 2,592,454 tonnes in 2016 up 3.4 per cent compared
to 2,506,092 recorded during 2015.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai
Airports, said, “After emerging as the world’s number one airport
for international passengers in 2014, DXB has firmly established itself
as the leader in that category. With our forecast for 89 million
passengers in 2017, DXB is closing the gap on Atlanta and Beijing for
the top spot in overall traffic. Our focus in 2017 and beyond will be on
making the airport experience even more delightful, engaging and
comfortable for our customers. Our DXB Plus programme will see a series
of unique initiatives introduced at the airport to make DXB not only the
busiest but also the world’s best international airport.”

Read
the full story and December figures here

*Source: ME
NewsWire

Contacts

Dubai Airports
Ali Zaigham, +971-4-504-5721
Ali.Zaigham@dubaiairports.ae