As expected, Dubai International’s July passenger traffic fell -2.9% to 5,155,771, as runway upgrading restricted it to one facility for 80 day.

 

Nevertheless, Dubai Airports proudly pointed out that this was the 19th straight month of plus-5m passengers, despite aircraft being restricted to single runway-usage for a period of 80 days from May 1 as Dubai’s two runways were refurbished and upgraded one at time. Both runways were reopened on July 21.

 

During the first seven months of the 2014, passenger numbers rose by 4.9% to 39,831,861, up from 37,972,464 over the corresponding period last year.

 

At an impressive plus-17.6% Eastern Europe grew fastest on a regional basis during July, followed by North America (+8.8%), South America (+4.5%) and Western Europe (+3.9%). The Indian subcontinent and Middle East showed declines as a result of reduced flights during the runway works.

 

Dubai International also handled 25,081 aircraft movements in July, a reduction of 11.9% from 28,462 in the same month in 2013. Year-to-date aircraft movements totalled 195,896 during the first seven months, down 7.3% from the 211,373 movements recorded in the same period last year.

A shift towards more capacity being taken up by Emirate’s Airbus A380 means less aircraft landings, but greater concentrations of passengers in short bursts at Dubai International Airport.

 

 

MOVE TOWARDS LARGER AIRCRAFT

Dubai Airports’ management said that these declines were driven by the continued shift by home carrier Emirates airline’s to larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380 – taking average passengers per movement during July to 211, up 5% from 201 at the same time last year. A 26% reduction in the number of flight movements during the refurbishment programme also had an impact on the number of aircraft movements.

 

With all dedicated freighters moving to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central from May 1, both monthly and year-to-date cargo volumes at Dubai International registered a downturn. In July, cargo volumes reached 184,720 tonnes, down 10.7 per cent from the 206,945 tonnes achieved in the same month in 2013. Year to date cargo volumes reached 1,367,967 tonnes, down 3.1 per cent from 1,411,896 tonnes recorded in the first seven months of 2013.

 

“July was a story of two distinct halves,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “As anticipated, traffic continued to be impacted by the runway refurbishment programme in the first part of the month. But, crucially, July also marked the successful reopening of both Dubai International’s runways, just in time to accommodate the holiday rush in the last week of the month when we experienced some of the busiest days on record. We are back to business as usual at Dubai International,”

 

“Looking forward, with two newly upgraded runways which are able to accommodate even more aircraft, the airport is well placed to resume the growth we saw in the first four months of the year.”