Dubai International Airport’s passenger traffic fell 2.5% to 5,086,910 passengers as airport works reduced landings to just one runway due to works.

The airport said it was able to achieve these numbers despite aircraft movements declining by 26.6% to 22,856 in May – down from the 31,121 recorded during the same month last year.

In the first five months of the year, passenger numbers rose by 9.2% to 29,608,364, up from 27,124,195 passengers during the same period last year. Aircraft movements for the same period dropped 2.6% to 148,784 movements, down from the 152,720 movements recorded in the first five months of 2013.

The airports company said that several airlines opted to use larger aircraft during the runway closures, boosting the average number of passengers per flight by 22% year on year in May to a record 228 passengers, up from 186 in May 2013. This increase was largely driven by Emirates’ growing A380 fleet which has been extensively deployed during the runway upgrade programme.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said: “We are extremely pleased that we were able to top five million passengers in May, despite being reduced to a single runway. Our early consultation with airlines, careful planning and slot management has allowed our airlines to accommodate almost the same number of passengers as last year by deploying larger aircraft while protecting service levels for our passengers.

 

 

Dubai Duty Free generated a sales turnover of $1.8bn in 2013 and is forecasting sales of $1.9m in 2014.

 

RUNWAY WORK SET TO FINISH IN AUGUST
“We can look forward to renewed growth in August when both our runways are returned to service in time for the Eid and summer holidays.”

Airport management said that passenger traffic growth is expected to remain flat or marginally decline until the runway refurbishment programme is completed on July 20, and as the result of a lull in passenger numbers typically recorded during the holy month of Ramadan, before resuming the strong growth trend achieved in the first four months of the year.

Regionally, during the period under review, Western Europe achieved the highest increase in passenger numbers in May (+63,185), followed by North America (+50,954), Asia (+40,535) and Australasia (+8,799).

London overtook Mumbai as Dubai International’s busiest city destination in May with 3.3% growth. Doha, Jeddah and Kuwait rounded out the top five city destinations during the month.