Dubai Airport Passenger Numbers Up 11.4% In February

Passenger traffic at Dubai’s main airport surpassed five million people in February, rising 11.4 per cent from a year earlier, airport authorities said on Tuesday.

The airport, one of the world’s busiest, handled 5.1 million passengers in February. Year-to-date traffic was up 13 per cent to 10.6 million passengers.

“We continue to stay ahead of the curve in terms of our traffic forecast of 65.4 million passengers in 2013,” Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said in the statement.

An increase in travellers from eastern Europe, Asia, Russia and the Gulf in February offset a 1.6 per cent year-on-year drop in travellers from elsewhere in the Middle East because of turmoil in countries such as Syria.

Cargo volumes in February totalled 182,580 tonnes, an increase of 15.9 per cent. Year-to-date cargo volumes were up 12.1 per cent to 370,099 tonnes.