Dubai International Airport passengers remain above 5m for 19th consecutive month in Jul-2014

UAE's Dubai Airports reported (31-Aug-2014) passenger traffic at Dubai International remained above the five-million mark for the 19th consecutive month in Jul-2014 while maintaining its growth trend for the year to date. Passenger numbers fell 2.9% year-on-year to 5.2 million in Jul-2014, with traffic impacted by Dubai International being reduced to single runway for a period of 80-days from 01-May-2014. Regionally, Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region with passengers increasing 17.6%, followed by North America (+8.8%), South America (+4.5%) and Western Europe (+3.9%). The Indian subcontinent and the Middle East showed declines as a result of reduced services during the runway works. Aircraft movements at Dubai International fell 11.9% to 25,081. With all dedicated freighters moving to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central from 01-May-2014, both monthly and year-to-date cargo volume at Dubai International registered a decline of 10.7% to 184,720 tonnes. Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths commented, "crucially, July also marked the successful reopening of both Dubai International's runways, just in time to accommodate the holiday rush in the last week of the month when we experienced some of the busiest days on record. We are back to business as usual at Dubai International." He added, "Looking forward, with two newly upgraded runways which are able to accommodate even more aircraft, the airport is well placed to resume the growth we saw in the first four months of the year." [more - original PR]