WHY IT RATES: Once considered a niche/luxury destination, Dubai is becoming more and more popular with various travel segments and the airport is meeting the considerable demand.—Michael Schottey, TravelPulse Director of Digital Content.
Dubai International (DXB) welcomed 36.9 million passengers during the first five months of 2018 according to the monthly traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports today.
DXB welcomed a total of 36,943,613 passengers during the first five months of 2018 compared to 36,969,594 passengers recorded during the same period last year, a marginal contraction of 0.1%, largely due to the impact of Ramadan which fell in May this year. Passenger traffic for the past 12 months totalled 88,216,118, up 2.6% compared to 85,974,096 recorded during the corresponding period in 2016-2017.
In May, passenger numbers totaled 6,589,264 compared to 6,850,052 recorded during the same month last year, a contraction of 3.8% due to lower volumes traditionally experienced during Ramadan. Average monthly traffic volumes have however remained high in 2018 at 7.4 million passengers.
Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region in May with 19.4% growth, thanks to robust growth on routes to Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania and the launch of Fly Dubai’s new services to Krakow in Poland. CIS was the second fastest region (11.3%), followed by Africa (9.9%)—where Nigeria and Egypt recorded strong growth during the month.
India was the top destination country with a total of 1,041,258 passengers, followed by Saudi Arabia (495,242), and the UK (429,893), while the top cities for passenger volumes were London with 262,913 passengers, Mumbai (213,056) and Jeddah (179,756).
Flight movements during the month under review totaled 32,620 compared to 34,544 during May 2017, a drop of 5.6%. The hub’s efficiency increased as the average number of passengers per flight was 209 during May, up 2% compared to 205 during the same month last year. Year to date flight numbers reached 168.979, down 3.5% compared to 175,157 flight movements recorded during the first five months last year.
DXB handled a total of 221,363 tonnes of cargo during May, down 4.9% compared to 232,884 tonnes during the same month last year. Year to date cargo at the end of May totaled 1,053,549 compared to 1,087,243 tonnes, down 3.1%.
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