São Paulo – Dubai International Airport, in the United Arab Emirates, received a record 57.6 million passengers in 2012, growth of 13.2% over 2011. According to Dubai Airports, which manages the site, the airport in the emirate has overtaken Hong Kong and is now the third busiest in number of international passengers. According to figures disclosed in 2011 by the Airports Council International, an association in the area, ahead of it were Heathrow, in London, Charles de Gaulle, in Paris, and Hong Kong.
Dubai Airports informed, on Monday (28), that the record passenger throughput in 2012 exceeded the previous forecast by over one million people. This growth is attributed to a record 5.3 million people who arrived or departed in December 2012. One year before, 4.6 million passengers had crossed the airports corridors in that month.
South America was the origin that grew most in passenger movement in 2012, up 99.4% as against the previous year. Emirates Airline expanded its flight frequency to the region, with a new daily route to Buenos Aires, with a stop in Rio de Janeiro.
The volume of passengers from Russia and the Community of Independent States rose 21.9%, followed by growth of 19.4% in travellers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC – which includes the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman) and 18.6% from North America, which also got more flights to Dubai in 2012.
India is still the country with the greatest passenger transit in Dubai. According to a study disclosed by Dubai Airports, the volume of Indians who arrived or departed from that airport grew 7.4% in 2012 to reach 7.34 million people, due to the greater volume of routes operated by Emirates and by Asian companies to cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kochi.
Aircraft and cargo
Throughout last year, there were 344,245 aircraft movements, including take-offs and landings, 5.5% more than the 326,318 movements in 2011. The volume of cargo shipped at the airport also rose. The growth was 3.9% and climbed from 2.19 million tonnes in 2011 to 2.27 million tonnes in 2012.
The CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffths, stated that the forecast is that 65.4 million passengers should cross the airport in 2013 and said that the opening of Concourse A of Terminal 3, exclusively for passengers of the A380 aircraft, will contribute to greater passenger flow.
*Translated by Mark Ament
