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Dubai International airport on track to record 85m passengers

Dubai International airport is expected to witness a record traffic this year and will achieve its own target of 85 million passengers in 2016, according to a senior aviation analyst.
The passenger traffic at the world's busiest international airport reached a record level of 40.5 million passengers in the first half of the year, showing an increase of 5.8 per cent over the corresponding period last year at 38.3 million passengers, according to its operator Dubai Airports.
"We've had a record first half and the second half is under way with what could be a banner month thanks to the start of the holiday season in July and the week-long break for the Islamic festival of Eid Al Fitr," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
The annual summer travel peak kept the airport very busy as the airport welcome nearly two million passengers over the two weekends of June 30 and July 7.

If this trend continues the airport will easily achieve its own target of 85 million passengers by the end of 2016. Last year, the airport hosted 78 million passengers.
Owing to the impact of the holy month of Ramadan on travel patterns during an already traditionally slow month, traffic in June dipped one per cent to 5.86 million, compared to 5.9 million recorded during June 2015.
"The one per cent decrease in traffic for June 2016 is not a pattern going forward - it is an expected blip - the continued expansion of Emirates adding more routes and capacity up-gauges on high-yield routes indicates that demand for travel through Dubai continues unabated," Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London's StrategicAero Research, told Khaleej Times.
In the first half of the year, the top five country destinations in terms of total passenger volumes were India (5.68 million), Saudi Arabia (3.2 million), the UK (2.85 million), Pakistan (2.13 million) and the US (1.63 million). Aircraft movements in the first half totalled 207,439, up 3.8 per cent compared to 199,820 recorded during the corresponding period last year.
In June aircraft movements totalled 32,368, up 0.6 per cent compared to 32,166 during June of last year.
"At the other end of the spectrum, flydubai has been instrumental in capturing traffic from a combative and competitive cost-wary sector in markets like Saudi Arabia and India - its aggressive organic growth strategy continues to show robustness," Ahmad explained.
During the first half of 2016, air cargo volumes rose 3.8 per cent to 1.28 million tonnes compared to 1.23 million tonnes during the same period in 2015. Dubai International handled 226,175 tonnes of freight in June compared to 217,896 tonnes during the same month last year, an increase of 3.9 per cent.
"In July we have seen very high volumes, particularly in connecting traffic as vacationers increasingly choose Dubai as an intercontinental hub as well as being a popular destination in itself, Griffiths said, adding: "We deployed additional staff at touchpoints across the airport and launched the Hangout@DXB campaign to reach out to travellers, keeping them informed of the latest DXB, and travel tips to make their journey easier."
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com