Revenue at Dubai Airports grew by 11 per cent last year, helped by a boost in food, beverage and retail at the airport.
Dubai Airports is the government company that manages the emirate’s two airports – Dubai International and Al Maktoum International. It profits from aeronautical streams, such as aircraft parking fees, as well as non-aeronautical streams, such as duty free shops and advertising in the terminals.
Non-aeronautical revenue increased by 15 per cent last year. It contributed 53 per cent of overall revenue.
Aeronautical revenue, which accounted for the other 47 per cent, rose 7 per cent.
“This result strongly supports Dubai Airports’ long-term corporate objective of reducing sole dependency on aeronautical revenue sources, or other funding, to finance our expansion,” the airport said in its year book.
While Dubai Airports revealed percentage changes, it did not provide specific figures.
But as a measure of the vast scale of airport commerce in the emirate, sales by Dubai Duty Free – which leases space from Dubai Airports – reached Dh6.99 billion last year, up 7.3 per cent from the previous year. For 2015, the duty-free purveyor is aiming to top Dh7.7bn.
Dubai International toppled London Heathrow as the world’s busiest airport by international travellers in 2014. Total passenger numbers grew 6.1 per cent to more than 70.47 million last year.
Passenger traffic at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International combined reached 71.3 million last year.
Traffic for the two airports is expected to exceed 126 million by 2020 and 200 million by 2030.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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