October was the second-busiest month on record at Dubai International Airport with passenger traffic of 4,923,246, up 14.3% from 4,307,817 in October 2011.
Year-to-date traffic has climbed 13.5% to 47,488,586 compared to 41,855,561 recorded during the corresponding period last year. “At this rate we expect to exceed our initial forecast of 56.5 million passengers and should end the year at or around 57 million passengers,” said Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths.
AGCC recorded the largest increase in total passenger numbers in October (+189,991), followed by Western Europe (+148,945), the Indian subcontinent (+81,533), and Asia (+42,768). Contraction in traffic on Middle Eastern routes continued in October (-7,760) as a result of unrest in certain parts of the region.
The strongest markets in terms of percentage passenger growth were South America (+93.2%) driven by new Emirates operations to destinations there, followed by AGCC (28.2%), Russia and CIS (+25.7%), and Eastern Europe (+24.2%).
Aircraft movements in October rose 3.9% to 29,578 from 28,463 recorded during the same month in 2011. The year-to-date movements totalled 283,551, up 5.9% from 267,706 movements between January and October 2011.
The airport handled 202,619 tonnes of cargo in October, an increase of 2.4% over the 197,841 tonnes recorded during the same period in 2011. The year-to-date freight volumes reached 1,877,616 tonnes compared to 1,813,013 tonnes handled during the corresponding period last year, an increase of 3.6%.