Dubai airport handles over seven million passengers in Sept

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, recorded a 1.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic in September.

The airport handled 7.22 million passengers in September compared with 7.09 million travellers in the same month a year ago.

Growth in airport traffic softened due to Eid holidays, traditionally a seasonal rush for the airport, being split across August and September this year, operator Dubai Airports said in a statement on Thursday. Passenger traffic in August reached 8.23 million, the busiest month ever for Dubai International.

In September, the number of aircraft landings and take-offs declined 4.7 per cent to 33,134, but the volume of cargo grew 5.8 per cent at 217,120.

The most popular destinations were London, Kuwait, and Mumbai.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, passenger traffic rose 5.8 per cent to 66.57 million passengers compared with the year-ago period.

The average number of passengers per flight rose 6.8 per cent to 224, underpinned by an increasing number of wide-bodied aircraft at Dubai International, according to Dubai Airports.

The airport is the base of Middle East airline Emirates, which is the largest operator of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft. Aircraft landings and take-offs in the first nine months dropped 1.9 per cent to 307,683, and cargo handling went up by 3.5 per cent to 1.96 million tonnes.