India, Saudi top markets for Dubai airport in April

dubai - London was the top destination city, followed by Mumbai

Dubai International airport recorded a small decline in passenger traffic growth in April, with London, Mumbai and Jeddah emerging the top three destination cities.

According to official figures released by the Dubai Airports on Sunday, the monthly traffic in April 2018 totalled 7.613 million compared to 7.622 million passengers recorded during the same month in 2017, a marginal contraction of 0.1 per cent. The year-to-date traffic reached 30.354 million passengers as compared to 30.119 million recorded during the first four months of 2017, up 0.8 per cent.

Eastern Europe was the fastest expanding market with traffic growing 28 per cent, followed by CIS (17.7 per cent) and Africa (9.9 per cent).

India maintained its position as the top destination country by passenger numbers with a total of 1,027,267 passengers during the month. Saudi Arabia was placed second with 556,640 passengers, followed by the UK with 530,404 passengers and Pakistan with 369,493 passengers.  

London was the top destination city with 315,979 passengers, followed by Mumbai (202,981) and Jeddah (185,017).

According to Dubai Airports, flight movements at DXB totalled 34,244 during the month under review, down 3 per cent compared to 35,285 in April of 2017. Year-to-date flight movements totalled 136,359, compared to 140,613 recorded during the first four months in 2017, a contraction of three per cent.

The average number of passengers per movement during April remained high at 230 compared to 225 during the corresponding month in 2017, an increase of 2.2 per cent.

Cargo volumes in April totalled 216,333 tonnes, down 0.7 per cent compared to 217,881 tonnes in April 2017. Year-to-date freight volumes totalled 832,187 tonnes, compared to 854,359 tonnes handled during the first four months of 2017, down 2.6 per cent.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com