Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports has said that Passenger figures at Dubai Airport are set to reach 90 million by 2020 which will make Dubai International Airport the world’s busiest in terms of international passenger traffic.
For next year, Dubai Airports has predicted that passenger growth at Dubai International Airport will grow by 13.1% in 2011, with numbers breaching 50 million for the first time.
The 2011 traffic forecast predicts that the growth will be driven by a projected 10% increase in Emirates Airline passenger numbers and double the amount of FlyDubai traffic.
Freight traffic is predicted to increase by 4.8% to 2.2 million tonnes next year. Total aircraft movements will rise by around 12% to 328,900.
Dubai airport is expecting to see 46.1 million passengers through its terminals in 2010, with 2.1 million tonnes of freight.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports said.
“Over the past 50 years Dubai International has seen passenger numbers increase by an average 15.5 % annually. By the end of 2011 passenger numbers will have almost quadrupled in ten years from 13.5 million in 2001 to over 52 million,”
“Before the end of the decade passenger numbers will approach 90 million making Dubai International the busiest airport in the world in terms of international passenger traffic,” Griffiths added.
Dubai airport also released its traffic figures for October, which showed that passenger numbers rose by 14.8 % in comparison to the same month last year, to just over 4 million.
The largest percentage passenger traffic growth during the month was seen on routes to and from Eastern Europe (306 %), Russia (28 %) and Asia (28 %).
October’s freight volumes rose 9.2 %, with year-to-date figures showing a 21.6 % improvement over the corresponding period in 2009.