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Dubai airport passengers up 9.0 pct to 34.3 mln in 2008

DUBAI - Dubai airport, the busiest air hub in the Middle East, on Sunday posted a 9.0 percent increase in the number of its passengers, despite a drop in world air traffic.

Passenger numbers rose to 37.44 million last year from 34.348 million in 2007, the Dubai civil aviation department said in a statement.

The increase compares to a surge of more than 19 percent in passenger numbers in 2007, from 28.7 million in 2006.

The Gulf city state had by the end of 2008 increased the capacity of its airport to 60 million passengers per year with the opening of its third terminal, which can handle up to 30 million.

Middle East air traffic continued to grow last year despite a slump in worldwide passenger numbers, which contracted by 4.6 percent in November, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Middle Eastern carriers saw traffic increase by 5.6 percent in November. This is up from 3.5 percent growth in October, but "represents a step-change from the double-digit expansion that characterised growth prior to the current financial crisis," IATA said in December.