Dubai International Airport set to beat 2013 passenger target

The airport will exceed its passenger forecast of 65.4 million for the year, boosted by high growth in November.

An Emirates Airline passenger jet taxis on the tarmac at Dubai International airport. Passengers numbers continue to grow at the airport. AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili
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Dubai International Airport will exceed its passengers forecast of 65.4 million for 2013, boosted by high growth in November, data by Dubai Airports showed.

Traffic in November reached 5.3 million, up 9.5 per cent, compared to 4.8m a year ago, Dubai Airports said in its monthly data report.

A total of 60.3m passengers visited the airport until November, compared to 52.3m a year earlier, marking an increase of 15.3 per cent, the report showed.

“Dubai International’s total capacity increased to 75 million passengers per year when Concourse A was opened in January and this will be followed by the opening of Concourse D in early 2015,” said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports.

“We continue to focus on improving our facilities and customer service as our infrastructure development programme keeps pace with our healthy traffic growth,” Mr Griffiths added.

The report showed that Eastern Europe contributed to the highest percentage growth at 56.5 per cent, boosted by flydubai’s routes to 15 destinations in 10 countries in Europe. Australasia came second at 33.4 per cent, triggered by the launch of Qantas services to Dubai in early 2013.

Meanwhile, growth from Russia and The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was at 18.8 per cent, driven by a demand increase on routes coming to the region.

Separately in November, Dubai International cargo increased by 11.6 per cent year-on-year to 223,195 tonnes. Until November, freight volumes reached 2.2m tonnes, an increase of 6.7 per cent, compared to 2.1m tonnes in the year earlier period.

selgazzar@thenational.ae