Dubai International passenger traffic nears 8 million in January

London was the top destination city with 333,286 passengers, followed by Kuwait City (231,956) and Mumbai (225,776)

Dubai International Airport welcomed almost 8 million passengers in January. Satish Kumar/Reuters

Passenger traffic at Dubai International exceeded 7.9 million in January, according to the traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports today.

“With passenger numbers nearing 8 million during the first month of the year, we’ve had a very encouraging start to 2018,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports. “What’s even more encouraging is that processes and technologies we have implemented recently are creating a smoother experience for our customers despite the high traffic volumes.”

DXB welcomed a total of 7,960,146 passengers in January, a small reduction of 1 per cent compared to 8,037,008 recorded in January 2017 when passenger volumes were boosted due to Chinese New Year, which fell in February this year.

South America was the top region in terms of percentage growth during the month (22.6 per cent), followed by CIS (19.7 per cent) – with a bulk of the increase resulting from the surge on routes such as Moscow, Baku and Kazan, among others, and Africa (6.4 per cent), propelled by the launch of new services by Med View and Emirates on routes to Abuja and the  doubling of Emirates's services to Lagos.

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In terms of passenger numbers, routes to the Indian subcontinent topped the list with 1,100,477 passengers followed by Saudi Arabia (650,822) and the UK (547,286).

London was the top destination city with 333,286 passengers, followed by Kuwait (231,956), and Mumbai (225,776).

Flight movements during January totalled 35,306 compared to 36,592 during the same month last year, a contraction of 3.5 per cent. The average number of passengers per flight remained high at 232 during the month, an increase of 0.9 per cent compared to 230 recorded in January 2017.

Freight volumes at DXB totalled 202,233 tonnes in January, down 2.9 per cent per cent compared to the 208,271 tonnes recorded in January 2017.