Dubai Airport takes over as world's third busiest international airport

According to the annual traffic report issued today by Dubai Airports, passenger traffic surged 13.2% to 57,684,550 in 2012, up from 50,977,960 passengers recorded during 2011.

The 2012 passenger traffic also exceeded Dubai Airports' forecast at the start of the year of 56.5-million by more than 1 million passengers.

The year-end numbers were bolstered by a record 5,320,961 passengers in December 2012, 13.4% higher than the 4,690,726 passengers recorded in December 2011 and the second month in Dubai International's 52 year history that passenger traffic has exceeded 5 million passengers.

Aircraft movements for 2012 reached 344,245 movements, up 5.5% from the 326,318 movements recorded in 2011. Regionally, South America was the fastest expanding market in terms of percentage growth in 2012 (+99.4%) due to the introduction of Emirates flights to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. The Russia & CIS region followed in second place (+36.9%), Australasia (+21.9%) in third spot and GCC fourth (+19.4%).

New Emirates flights to Washington, Dallas Fort Worth and Seattle during the year saw North American passenger traffic grow 18.6%, making it the fifth fastest growing region.

India remained Dubai International's single biggest country destination in terms of passenger numbers. The passenger traffic between Dubai and India continued to show robust growth during the past year, with total passenger traffic rising 7.4% year on year to 7.34 million passengers in 2012. Traffic was bolstered by the introduction of Spicejet which added new flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and Ahmedabad to Dubai. Air India Express, Indigo and Emirates also added new flights and destinations during the year.

Freight volumes rebounded towards the end of last year, helping total volumes for 2012 rise 3.9% to 2,279,624 tonnes from 2,194,264 tonnes recorded in 2011. In December, cargo volumes climbed 6.5% from 189,593 tonnes in December 2011 to 201,949 tonnes in December 2012.

"Moving into the top three is a fantastic achievement for Dubai International and we now have London's Heathrow and the number one spot firmly within our sights. The opening of Concourse A, the world's first purpose-built A380 facility, has given us the room to maintain our strong growth into the new year, with a forecast of 65.4 million passengers in 2013," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

"However, our rapid growth is not without its challenges and we will use the breathing room created by the phased opening of Concourse A to stress test every aspect of our service in the next year and put in place long-term processes that will put Dubai International on track to becoming the best airport in the world in addition to being the busiest," said Griffiths.