Dubai – Mubasher: The Dubai International Airport (DXB) witnessed over 67 million passengers pass through its gates between January and September 2018, it said on Tuesday.
The airport saw 67.5 million customers during the nine-month period, up 1.4% from a year ago.
In September alone, the number of people passing through DXB was 7.2 million, down on a month-on-month basis from its fresh world record of 8.37 million in August.
The airport attributed the September data to a slight decline in traffic by 0.2% from a year ago due to the Eid Al Adha holidays, a period of high traffic that came in August versus September last year.
This is the sixth time in 2018 that DXB’s monthly traffic exceeded the 7-million mark, helping finish off the third quarter with 23.8 million customers, up 1%, the DXB said.
Top destinations
India continued to be the Dubai International Airport’s top destination country by customer volume, with total traffic reaching 957,748 in September.
The UK came in second with 538,199 customers, while Saudi Arabia ranked third with 454,929 customers.
Other markets contributing largest to the DXB’s top destinations were Australia with 256,848 travellers, the US with 252,264 customers, and China with 208,822, the DXB’s report showed.
Meanwhile, the top three cities people travelled to in September were London with 329,778 customers, followed by Mumbai and New Delhi with 199,829 and 170,122 customers, respectively.
The DXB’s fastest growing regions were North America, up 15.2% last month, Africa up 10.9%, and CIS up 6.8%.
Other data
DXB handled around 6 million bags, up 1.12% year-on-year, via its “sophisticated 175 km long baggage system during September,” it said, noting that waiting times, using its Smart Gate technology, fell 28% last month.
In September, the DXB handled 221,213 tonnes of airfreight, up 1.9% year-on-year, bringing total cargo tonnage for the year to 1.932 million, a decrease of 1.3% from September 2017.
