Dubai airport passenger traffic soars to 51m in 2011

The number of passengers handled by the airport last year reached 50.98 million compared to 47.2 million the year before, according to Dubai Airports. In December, passenger numbers reached 4.69 million, up 10.2% from 4.26 million in the same month a year earlier.

"In a year that was characterised by economic uncertainty, political instability and high oil prices passenger growth continued unabated driven by new routes and additional frequencies as airlines capitalised on Dubai's attractiveness as a business and tourism destination," said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports.

"That trend will continue in 2012 with our two largest airlines - Emirates and Flydubai - set to receive additional aircraft throughout the year."

During 2011, 28 new passenger destinations were added while 17 were discontinued boosting overall passenger destinations served by the airport to 215 compared to 204 in 2010.

The most significant percentage traffic growth during the year was seen on routes linking Dubai to Eastern Europe (+81%), while the biggest markets in terms of total passenger numbers included India, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Saj Ahmad, Chief Analyst at StrategicAero Research, said, "Much of the 51m passenger traffic growth has come from strong regional markets in the GCC, led in large part by a rapid expansion and customer attraction to low-cost airlines to destinations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan - all regional centres where pricing matters immensely."

"During this year, we can again expect to see regional growth drive traffic numbers at Dubai International in a big way. We can look to see the airport get close to that 60m passenger mark either this year or next without doubt."

Dubai Airports last year announced that it would invest $7.8bn in an airport expansion programme to boost its capacity from 60 million passengers a year to 90 million passengers by 2018.

The next major step in these plans will be the completion of Concourse 3, the world's largest dedicated A380 facility, which is scheduled for the end of this year, Dubai Airports said.