28/01/2015
Dubai topples Heathrow as world's busiest international airport
Dubai Airports on Monday released its year-end traffic report which confirms that Dubai International (DXB) has overtaken London Heathrow as the number one airport for international passenger numbers.
Full year passenger numbers totalled 70,475,636, up 6.1 percent from the 66,431,533 recorded in 2013.
This followed robust passenger traffic growth of 7.5 percent in December with 6,498,573 passengers passing through the air hub, a statement said.
“This historic milestone is the culmination of over five decades of double-digit average growth that were inspired by the vision of the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum,” said Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Airports.
“The shared goal is to make Dubai a global centre of aviation and we are nearing that goal thanks to an open skies policy, a friendly business environment, Dubai’s growing attractiveness as a centre for trade, commerce and tourism, growing network connectivity due to the rapid expansion of Emirates and flydubai and timely investment in aviation infrastructure.”
Aircraft movements in December rose 4 percent to 34,136, while full-year aircraft movements totalled 357,339 compared to 369,953 versus 2013, a contraction of 3.4 percent, primarily due to the temporary reduction of flights experienced during the 80 day runway refurbishment project during the summer.
Spurred by an ongoing increase in the number of wide bodied aircraft servicing the airport, the numbers of passengers per flight increased 5.1 percent to 208.3 passengers for the full year.
2014's top market for growth in passenger volumes was Western Europe closely followed by the Indian Subcontinent, Asia and North America.