Dubai International (DXB) retained its position as the world’s number one airport for international passengers for the fourth consecutive year.
Its annual traffic for 2017 reached 88.2 million passengers, according to the annual traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports.
Traffic volumes averaged 7.35 million passengers per month throughout the year, with record months including January, July and August when traffic breached the 8-million passenger mark. DXB’s traffic reached 88,242,099 passengers for the full year, up 5.5% compared to 83,654,250 passengers recorded during 2016. The airport welcomed 7,854,657 passengers in December, up 1.9% compared to 7,706,351 recorded in the same month in 2016.
DXB welcomed six new scheduled passenger airlines during the year, including SalamAir, Badr Airlines, and Air Moldova, while home-based carriers Emirates and flydubai added three and 10 new passenger destinations and increased frequency/capacity on 31 and 22 routes respectively.
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India continued to be the single largest destination country for DXB with 12,060,435 passengers in 2017, up 5.4% compared to 11,440,215 passengers recorded in 2016. The UK claimed the second spot with 6,466,404 passengers (+6.7%), overtaking Saudi Arabia which recorded 6,364,598 passengers (4.6%).
Markets showing the most significant growth during the year included Russia with passenger numbers surging 28% to 1,339,534 and China with 2,212,179 passengers, up 19.4% over 2016. The surge follows the relaxation of visa regulations by the UAE to offer visa on arrival for both Russian and Chinese visitors. Thailand, bolstered by additional capacity deployed by Emirates through a switch to two-class A380 service, registered growth of 15.2% with passenger numbers reaching 2,445,053 in 2017.
London retained its position as the top destination city with 4,011,598 passengers, followed by Mumbai with 2,477,771 passengers and Jeddah with 2,113,820 passengers.
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