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“This historic milestone is the culmination of over five decades of double-digit average growth“ |
HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum Chairman Dubai Airports |
UAE. Dubai International has become the world’s busiest airport in international passenger terms.
Dubai Airports today released its 2014 traffic report which revealed that passenger numbers totalled 70,475,636, up +6.1% year-on-year. This followed a strong finish to the year with +7.5% passenger growth in December to 6,498,573 passengers.
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“We will be fully focussed on rolling out technology, new F&B concepts and service initiatives that further enhance the passenger experience“ |
Paul Griffiths CEO Dubai Airports |
“This historic milestone is the culmination of over five decades of double-digit average growth that were inspired by the vision of the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum,” said HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports. “It is a vision that has been carried forward strongly by our leader HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai
“The shared goal is to make Dubai a global centre of aviation and we are nearing that goal thanks to an open skies policy, a friendly business environment, Dubai’s growing attractiveness as a centre for trade, commerce and tourism, growing network connectivity due to the rapid expansion of Emirates and flydubai and timely investment in aviation infrastructure.”
The 2014 increase was all the more impressive given the -3.4% contraction in aircraft movements last year, driven by the temporary reduction of flights during an 80-day runway refurbishment project in summer, and the shift of freighter operators and some general aviation to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) earlier this year. However, spurred by an increase in the number of wide-bodied aircraft servicing the airport, the numbers of passengers per flight increased +5.1% to 208.3 passengers for the full year.
For the full year 2014, the top market for growth in passenger volumes was Western Europe (+1,192,831) closely followed by the Indian Subcontinent (+936,449), Asia (+716,180) and North America (+432,597). In terms of percentage growth* in 2014 Eastern Europe (+21.0%) was the strongest market followed by North America (+18.6%), Asia (+12.6%), Australasia (+9.2%) and Western Europe (+8.8%).
“Much like 2014, 2015 promises to be another eventful year featuring more record passenger numbers and facility upgrades including the opening of Concourse D which will boost Dubai International’s capacity to 90 million,” said Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths.
“Today we are also releasing our projections for 2015 traffic at Dubai International which forecast 79 million passengers. We will have more flights connecting more people to more destinations. And we will be fully focussed on rolling out technology, new F&B concepts and service initiatives that further enhance the passenger experience.”
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All charts courtesy of Dubai Airports |
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