DUBAI – Dubai airport was the world’s busiest for international passengersin 2017 for the fourth year running, with 88.2 million travellers, astatement said on Monday.International traffic at the UAE airport increased by 4.6 millionpassengers or 5.5 per cent compared to the previous year, operator DubaiAirports announced, despite a laptop ban temporarily imposed on itslong-haul flights to the United States.
A major transit hub situated on transcontinental air routes, Dubai is oneof several Gulf-based airports to have experienced prodigious growth inrecent years.
Indians continued to dominate the top position with 12.1 million passengersarriving at Dubai airport last year, up 5.4pc on 2016, the statement said.
British passengers came in second place with 6.5m, overtaking Saudis whocame in third place with 6.4m passengers.
The biggest rise was in the number of Russian passengers who soared by 28pcto 1.34 million, followed by Chinese travellers who increased by 19.4pc to2.2 million.
The surge came after UAE relaxed restrictions for both nations, offeringcitizens from those countries visas on arrival.
The airport recorded 10,000 less flights than the previous year, but planeswere filled closer to capacity, with an average of 223 per flight anincrease of nearly seven per cent.
Cargo rose by 2.4pc to a record 2.65 million tonnes.
CEO of Dubai Airports Paul Griffiths said the number of passengers isexpected to grow to 90.3 million in 2018 as authorities turn their focus toimplementing DXB Plus programme to raise the airport’s annual capacity to118 million travellers.
Dubai International, the base for Dubai carrier Emirates and its budgetairline FlyDubai, surpassed London’s Heathrow airport in terms ofinternational passengers in 2014 and has maintained its lead since.
The United States in March imposed a ban on laptops and tablet computersinside the cabin on inbound flights from several Middle Eastern and NorthAfrican countries including the United Arab Emirates.
But Emirates airline in July announced it had won an exemption from the banfor flights from its Dubai hub after implementing new security measures.
Emirates Airline operates a fleet of 269 aircraft, including 101 Airbus 380superjumbo planes and the rest are Boeing 777s.