Dubai International Airport, the emirate’s largest airport, received 7.85 million passengers in March, a 4.5 per cent increase from the same period in 2017, boosted by the Easter holidays, operator Dubai Airports said.
In total for the first quarter passenger arrivals climbed to just over 22.74 million, up 1.1 per cent, compared to the 22.49 million recorded during the same period in 2017.
That was despite the number of passenger flights falling 1.5 per cent to 34,126 in March from 34,634 in the same month last year, although passengers per flight continued to be above industry average in March at 230 - a 2.7 per cent rise from 224 in the corresponding period of 2017.
Year-to-date flight numbers came in at 98,839 down 1.8 per cent compared to 100,638 recorded during the first quarter of 2017.
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London topped the list of destination cities in March, Dubai Airports said, accounting for 348,434 passengers. Mumbai followed, with 216,970 passengers, then Bangkok with 208.873 passengers.
Meanwhile, India remained the top destination country with a total of 1.04 million passengers, followed by the UK with 572,080, Saudi Arabia with 566,292), Pakistan with 389,090 and Germany with 279,087.
The destination markets with the biggest growth in passenger numbers were Eastern Europe with a 29.8 per cent year-on-year rise, followed by the Russian states (CIS) at 28.3 per cent.
Dubai International handled 222,045 tonnes of freight in March, a 5.7 per cent drop from 235,503 tonnes during the same period last year, as Dubai’s second airport, Al Maktoum International, is increasingly used for airborne cargo traffic.
