Dubai airport cargo falls 3.7pc in March, passengers up 5.8pc cent

DUBAI International Airport saw its air freight volumes fall 3.7 per cent in March to 185,921 tonnes year on year as growth slowed in the wake of last year's global downturn, according to Dubai Airports.


Passenger numbers rose 5.8 per cent year on year in March to 4.2 million. "Passenger traffic growth continues to be robust," CEO Paul Griffiths said. "At the current levels we are on track to exceed 50 million passengers this year."


A report by Gulf News said the largest increases in passenger numbers were seen on routes to and from Arab and Gulf countries (+137,255 passengers), Indian subcontinent (+84,300 passengers), Asia Pacific (+25,071) and Russia and CIS (+21,165 passengers).


It said that Middle East routes suffered a decline of 23,240 in passenger numbers, while numbers were down by 24,402 on African routes owing to political unrest in those regions.


Aircraft movements in March totalled 27,674, an increase of 6.3 per cent year on year.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)