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UAE. Dubai International retained its position as the world’s leading airport for international passengers with annual traffic of just over 78 million in 2015, according to Dubai Airports.
Passenger traffic climbed by +10.7% year-on-year to 78,014,838, from just over 70 million in 2014. Passenger numbers in December hit 7,053,243, an increase of +8.5%, taking the average monthly traffic for the year to a record high of 6.5 million. It was the second time in the year (after August) when monthly traffic exceeded the 7 million mark.
During the year Dubai International welcomed new airlines including Air Canada from Toronto, Eurowings from Cologne and China Southern from Wuhan, among others. A total of 12 new passenger destinations came on stream through the network expansion of Dubai-based airlines flydubai and Emirates.
India retained its position as Dubai’s single largest destination country in 2015 with 10,391,376 passengers, a year on year growth of +17% compared to 8,908,362 in 2014. The UK was second with 5,682,307 passengers (+6%) followed closely by Saudi Arabia at 5,466,358 (+12%). In terms of destination cities, Doha retained the top spot with 2,782,600 passengers (+18%) followed closely by London with 2,659,602 passengers (+1%) and Mumbai with 2,214,221 passengers (+14%).
Spurred by Emirates’ network expansion and growth on routes to the region, North America led regional markets in terms of percentage growth in 2015 (+25%), followed by the GCC (+15%), and Asia (+12%).
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said: “It’s another banner year for Dubai International where we broke records, engaged and entertained our customers in new ways, and retained our position as the world’s number one international hub. But we have no time to rest on our laurels as we are already busy testing the readiness our newest facility, the US$1.2 billion Concourse D. When it opens for our 70 plus airlines this quarter, it will play a crucial role in helping us welcome millions of passengers in comfort and style.”
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Dubai Airports will seek to build on its leadership status with the opening of Concourse D in coming weeks |
