Dubai airport passenger traffic up 18.9pc in May

With May being the sixth consecutive month the airport has recorded passenger numbers exceeding 5 million, the year to date traffic is up 16.8 per cent to 27,124,195 compared to 23,216,893 during the first five months of 2012, said a traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports on Wednesday.

As a result of Emirates airline’s and flydubai’s expanding network, Western Europe topped the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers (+208,393), followed by the GCC (+189,810), and the Indian sub-continent (+131,364).

Following the launch of flights by Qantas in May after the airline’s tie-up with Emirates, Australia was the fastest growing destination with 50 per cent growth in traffic and Saudi Arabia a close second (40 per cent) thanks to the post liberalisation boom in the Kingdom’s aviation sector, the report said. More info