Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, served a record number of passengers for August, buoyed by travellers from the three top markets of India, UK and Saudi Arabia.
Passenger traffic at the airport surged 6.6 per cent to 8.2 million from 7.7 million in the year-earlier period, Dubai Airports said.
Year-to-date traffic is up 6.6 per cent to 59.3 million from 55.8 million during the first eight months of last year.
India retained its position as the top source market with over 1 million passengers, followed by the UK with more than 611,000 and Saudi Arabia with over 610,000.
“We are very pleased with the way things are shaping up this year, not only in terms of growth, which has been robust with passenger numbers exceeding the 8-million mark three times – in January, July and August,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports.
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South America was the fastest-growing market in August, with travellers increasing by 27.4 per cent, followed by Asia with 21.9 per cent and Eastern Europe with 18.8 per cent.
London was the No.1 destination city with 377,130 passengers, followed by Kuwait with 284,151 passengers and Mumbai with 211,564 passengers.
The average number of passengers per flight in August rose 7.2 per cent to 246 compared to 229 in August last year.
Flight movement fell 1.7 per cent to 34,370 in August from 34,967 recorded in the same month last year. Year-to-date flight movement dropped 1.5 per cent to 274,549 from 278,799 during the first eight months in 2016.
Freight volumes soared 10.1 per cent to 221,508 tonnes in August from 201,100 tonnes a year earlier. Year-to-date cargo rose 3 per cent to 1,737,676 tonnes from 1,686,277 tonnes in the first eight months of last year.
