Top regions in terms of percentage growth in 2017 were South America (36.1%), Eastern Europe (25.3%) and Asia (17.9%) – mainly spurred by network expansion by Emirates, flydubai and other carriers.
The average number of passenger per flight grew 6.9% to 223 during the year compared to 209 for 2016, mainly due to DXB’s position as the world’s largest hub for wide body aircraft, particularly for the A380.
The number of flight movements during 2017 totalled 409,493, down 2.4% compared to 419,654 recorded in 2016. December’s flight numbers totalled 35,132 compared to 36,065 in the corresponding month in 2016, down 2.6%.
DXB witnessed some fluctuation in cargo volumes during the year but thanks to the bumper growth in March (8.4%), August (11.8%*) and September (5.8%), 2017 freight volumes reached a record 2,654,494 tonnes, up 2.4% compared to 2,592,454 recorded during 2016. In December DXB handled 229,019 tonnes of cargo compared to 230,122 tonnes recorded in the same month during 2016, a minor contraction of 0.5%.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said in a statement: "With passenger traffic expected to reach 90.3 million in 2018, our focus in the new year will be on the DXB Plus programme which aims to expand the airport’s annual capacity to 118 million passengers through process improvements and use of new technology."
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