Dubai International Airport witnessed 32.6 million passengers in the first half of 2013, making it the busiest six months in its history with India being the third most travelled destination, according to a report.
According to the report issued today by Dubai Airports operator, Dubai International airport witnessed 5,537,908 passengers in June, registering a surge of 17.5 per cent from the 4,714,746 who travelled through the airport in June 2012.
Dubai International Airport became the world's second busiest international airport in March after overtaking Paris Charles de Gaulle and is expected to surpass world's busiest London's Heathrow Airport by 2015.
"Following seven consecutive months of five million-plus traffic, the year to date traffic reached 32,662,103 up 16.9 per cent from 27,931,639 in the first half of 2012. The average monthly passenger traffic recorded in the first six months of the year stood at 5.44 million compared to 4.65 million during the corresponding period in 2012," the report said.
In June, the top five country destinations in terms of passenger volumes were India, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Australia and Pakistan.
Spurred by the launch of Qantas operations into Dubai in April, Australia topped the list in terms of percentage growth, followed by Saudi Arabia, the UK and India, it said.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) continued to top the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers, up 198,779 passengers, followed by Western Europe which saw an increase of 170,782 passengers, and the Indian subcontinent 158,161.
South America was the only region recording a fall in traffic in June.
Aircraft movements in June totalled 30,191 up 10.1 per cent from 27,428 registered during the same period in 2012.
Passenger traffic at Dubai International is expected to surpass 65.4 million in 2013.
In Dubai, cargo volumes were also up by more than 10 per cent during the first half and 3.6 per cent in June compared with the same period a year ago.
"The first half this year has been very satisfying with double-digit growth across all markets, boosted by the launch of 84 new services to 25 destinations," Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said.
He said that a major driver of growth was Emirates airline's tie-up with Qantas and consequent launch of the Australian carrier's operations into Dubai.
"A number of major events are lined up for the remainder of the year - including the opening of the passenger operations at Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International in October followed by the Dubai Airshow 2013 in November, making the second half even more promising," he said.
