Passengers from Eastern Europe arriving at Dubai International Airport increased by 17.6 per cent in July, although overall numbers fell because of runway repairs.
Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region during the month, followed by North America, which was up 8.8 per cent, then South America and western Europe.
Passengers from the Indian subcontinent and Middle East declined in the month because of the runway repairs.
Overall, passengers for July dropped 2.9 per cent to 5.15 million from 5.31 million a year earlier.
“Traffic was impacted by Dubai International being reduced to a single runway for a period of 80 days from May 1, as the airport’s two runways were consecutively refurbished and upgraded,” said Dubai Airports.
The airport’s two runways were back in service on July 21.
Aircraft movement also fell during July. The decline was driven by Emirates Airline shifting to use larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380.
Through the year’s first seven months, though, passenger numbers were up 4.9 per cent to 39.8 million passengers, up from 37.9 million passengers in the same period a year ago.
“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,” said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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