Dubai International airport passenger traffic slips to 7.9 million in January

DXB, the world’s busiest for international travelers, welcomed 7.9 million passengers in January. (Reuters)

DUBAI: Passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB) airport was down by one percent in January, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.
DXB, the world’s busiest for international travelers, welcomed 7.9 million passengers last month, a small decline compared with the 8-million passenger count during the same month of last year when numbers were boosted by the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Chinese New Year this year fell on February 16.
“With passenger numbers nearing 8 million during the first month of the year, we’ve had a very encouraging start to 2018,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in a statement.
“What’s even more encouraging is that processes and technologies we have implemented recently are creating a smoother experience for our customers despite the high traffic volumes.”
Routes to the Indian subcontinent remained the single largest destination country for DXB with 1.1 million passengers, followed by Saudi Arabia with 650,822 passengers and the UK with 547,286 passengers.
London was the top destination city with 333,286 passengers, followed by Kuwait with 231,956 passengers and Mumbai with 225,776 passengers.
South America was the top region in terms of percentage growth during the month at 22.6 percent; followed by Commonwealth of Independent States at 19.7 percent – with a bulk of the increase resulting from the surge on routes like Moscow, Baku and Kazan among others – and Africa at 6.4 percent, which was propelled by the launch of new services by Med View and Emirates on routes to Abuja and doubling of Emirates’ services to Lagos.
Flight movements in January were also down to 35,306 from 36,592 during the same month of 2017. The average number of passengers per flight however remained was up at 232 during the month, an almost one percent increase compared with 230 recorded a year earlier.
Freight volumes were at 202,233 tons in January, down 2.9 percent from the 208,271 tons reported during the same month last year.
DXB is closing its southern runway for 45 days next year for upgrade work, Dubai Airports said earlier this week. The runway will be closed from April 16 to May 30, 2019.
“DXB’s southern runway (12R-30L) which is nearing the end of its design life and requires complete resurfacing and replacement of the airfield ground lighting and supporting infrastructure,” it said.
“As was the case during the 2014 runway upgrade program, Dubai World Central will be an available alternative to absorb affected scheduled flights as well as charter, cargo and general aviation operations.”