Dubai Airports has reported that Dubai International Airport (DXB) enjoyed its busiest month ever in July, with a total of 8,065,789 passengers compared to 7,616,792 handled in July 2016 – an increase of +5.9%.

 

At the same time, the airport handled 51,120,057 passengers during the first seven months, corresponding to a 6.2% rise on the same period last year.

 

INDIA REMAINED THE TOP DESTINATION COUNTRY

Airport management pointed to South America as the fastest growing region in July, with traffic growing very fast at +59%, followed by Asia at +20% – while China and Thailand were the top contributors to traffic from the region, Eastern Europe came in at 16.3% and Africa grew by 9.1%.

 

India retained its position as the top destination country with 1,028,508 passengers, followed by the UK (610,151 passengers), and Saudi Arabia (573,170 passengers).

 

The most popular destinations served from DXB by traffic volume were London, followed by Kuwait, Mumbai, Bangkok and Riyadh.

 

SECOND HALF HAS STARTED POSITIVELY

Dubai International also recorded an increase in cargo handling, with freight totalling 213,258 tonnes in July – up 5% – compared to 203,153 tonnes recorded during the corresponding month last year. By contrast, during the first seven months of 2017, DXB handled a total of 1,516,169 tonnes of cargo – an increase of 2.1%.

 

Commenting, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said: “We have started the second half of the year on a very positive note and with the Islamic festival of Eid Al Adha coinciding with the summer rush later this month, the upward trend is expected to remain strong in the third quarter.”