Dubai Airport’s April passenger traffic jumps 19%

DUBAI (Reuters): Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport climbed 18.7% in April from a year earlier, and should maintain that pace of growth in the coming months, airport authorities said on Monday. Passenger traffic totalled 5.42 million people in April, exceeding five million for a fifth straight month.

The largest absolute increase in total passenger numbers during April was recorded on western European routes. Some Middle Eastern routes that were affected by political instability last year grew moderately in April, the airport operator said without elaborating. “It is very clear that our growth rate has picked up and that should continue at a similar pace into the next quarter and beyond,” Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths said in a statement.

Growth was slightly slower than a 20.6% increase in March but well above low to mid double-digit rates since earlier in the year. Freight volume through the airport rose 7.3% to 199,985 tonnes in April; in the first four months of this year, it climbed 11.5% to 784,832 tonnes.