Air cargo traffic soars for Dubai World Central

Dubai World Central (DWC) air cargo traffic spiked in the third quarter after Emirates Airline completed the relocation of its cargo operations from Dubai International to the new airport.

DWC recorded 243,284 tonnes of freight in the third quarter of this year, up 462.5 per cent from 43,252 tonnes in the same period of 2013.

Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research said: "Despite global air cargo traffic growing at a much slower rate than passenger traffic, Dubai World Central's unique location sandwiched between Jebel Ali, Dubai and Abu Dhabi gives it a big three-way sea-land-to air advantage over neighbouring airports."

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) said on Monday that carriers from Asia-Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Africa posted strong freight growth figures in September – between 5 and 17 per cent - from the same month a year ago. However, their European counterparts recorded a decrease of 1.6 per cent in September.

Year to date DWC cargo reached 519,851 tonnes by the end of September, an increase of 255.6 per cent from 146,181 tonnes recorded in the first nine months of 2013.

Passenger numbers reached 155,997 in the third quarter of 2014, as some flights have temporarily moved to DWC during a runway repair project at Dubai International.

However, Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, which operates DWC, said he expects passenger traffic to return to the first-quarter level in the fourth quarter "as all temporary operations – which contributed substantially to passenger numbers this quarter – have already returned to Dubai International".

Global passenger traffic grew 5.3 per cent in September year-on-year, but slowed down from August’s rise of 6.3 per cent, according to Iata data released yesterday. The airlines’ association attributed the growth to the improvement in the US and Asian economies.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter