Dubai Airports records 4.85 million passengers

Dubai International began 2012 on a strong note with record monthly passenger traffic of over 4.85 million in January, according to the latest traffic report issued by Dubai Airports. Passenger traffic in January reached 4,852,139 passengers, surpassing the previous record of 4,724,109 of July 2011, and a 14 per cent increase compared to 4,254,735 recorded in January 2011. The 14 per cent upsurge is the largest month-on-month increase in 14 months. This performance brings Dubai International's rolling 12-month passenger numbers to 51.57 million and builds on the historic 50.98 million passengers recorded in 2011. The AGCC continued to top the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers* in January (+203,219 passengers), followed by Western Europe (+100,902), the Indian subcontinent (+92,855 passengers), and Russia and the CIS (+77,454 passengers). Middle Eastern routes continued the downward trend in the New Year (-4,747 passengers) owing to on-going unrest in the region, while traffic on African routes surged after months of weak performance (+34,909 passengers). Spurred by the launch of Emirates Airline's new routes to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, South America was the strongest market in terms of percentage passenger growth in January (+71.4 per cent), followed by Russia and CIS (+57.3 per cent) driven by the expansion of Dubai's low cost carrier flydubai in the region, and the AGCC (+36.9 per cent) as a result of growth in Saudi Arabian traffic. Eastern Europe (20.6 per cent) and Australasia (16.7) also achieved high growth rates.