Dubai Airports today announced that 6.68 million passengers passed through Dubai International in July up 29.6 per cent from the same month last year when traffic numbers were affected by a runway refurbishment programme.
 
Passenger numbers in July totalled to 6,682,676 compared to the 5,155,771 handled in July 2014 when the airport was reduced to one runway while a billion dollar refurbishment programme was conducted over an 80 day span. During the first seven months of 2015, DXB welcomed 44,981,967 passengers, compared to 39,831,861 passengers during the same period last year, an increase of 12.9 per cent.
 
Eastern Europe was again the strongest growing region in July up 77.6 per cent, driven mainly by flydubai’s new services to Slovakia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Croatia, and Emirates service to Hungary. GCC placed second during the month (+55.1 per cent) followed by North America (+49.1 per cent) and Russia and CIS (+41.4 per cent).
 
In terms of total passenger numbers the GCC outperformed the rest of the regions (+374,422   passengers), followed by the Indian subcontinent (+349,493) and Western Europe (+245,701 passengers). The top five countries in terms of passenger numbers were India, UK, Saudi Arabia, USA and Pakistan with London, Doha, Kuwait, Mumbai and Jeddah heading up the list of most popular destinations served from DXB.
 
The number of flights rose dramatically in July to 33,650, an increase of 35 per cent from 24,925 recorded during July 2014 again due to the effect of the runway closure. Year to date flight movements totalled 231,081 up 18.8 per cent from 194,554 aircraft movements recorded during the same period last year. 
 
Dubai International freight volumes increased 8 percent in July to 205,526 tonnes compared to 190,376 tonnes in July 2014 as volumes were affected by capacity reductions caused during the runway programme. During the first seven months of 2015 DXB handled 1,438,904 tonnes of freight up 2.7 percent from 1,401,743 tonnes handled during the same period last year.
 
“Over 6 million passengers per month has become the norm at DXB and we expect that to continue for the remainder of the year,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. “Despite the high volumes we have maintained service levels by implementing detailed operational plans, boosting staff levels, intensifying communication efforts with our business partners and customers.”