New record at Dubai International Airport - 2.05 million passengers in August

Passenger movement in the third quarter has gone up to 16.2 million in 2004 as compared to 13.2 million in 2003 showing a 23.1% growth. The month of August has witnessed passenger movement of 2.05 million which is a new monthly record. Cargo movement is up to 810,726 tonnes in 2004 as compared to 679,445 tonnes in 2003, growing 19.2% over the same period last year. Aircraft movement has also shown positive growth by registering movements 144,493 in the first first months of 2004 as compared to 122,896 in 2003, showing a growth of 17.6%.

April and March witnessed the maximum growth in passenger movement registering 45.01 % and 36.56 % respectively. The most successful months for Dubai Cargo Village have been February and January with 26.4 % and 24.4 % growth respectively.

Executive Flight Services (EFS) showed a 22% growth in the nine months ending September 2004 as compared to last year. It handled a total of 2652 flights in the nine months of 2004 as against 2172 during the same period last year. Highest movement was recorded in the months of January and March.

Earlier this year, according to statistics released by Airports Council International (ACI), Dubai International Airport emerged as one of the fastest growing airport in the world in terms of international passenger movement. Dubai International Airport had 13 % growth in 2003. Though Dubai had 18.01 million passenger throughput in 2003, ACI has discounted the transit passengers from their international passenger movement figures. The report on 2003 traffic movement places Dubai as 12th in terms of volume of international passengers with 17.1 million passengers.

According to projections, 2004 will witness over 21 million passenger throughput, while by 2010 Dubai will have 60 million passengers.