9 lakh Indians travelled to Dubai in August

Dubai International Airport has set a record of 7.7 million passengers in August, with India being the top destination country accounting for over 9 lakh travellers, according to a monthly traffic report. It has surpassed the previous record achieved in July.

India remained the top destination country (9.24 lakh passengers), followed by the UK (5.84 lakh passengers) and Saudi Arabia (5.35 lakh passengers). Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport (DXB) reached 77.3 lakh compared to 72.8 lakh in the corresponding month in 2015, an increase of 6.1 per cent. The year to date traffic totalled 55,850,353 passengers, up 6.9 per cent compared to 52,264,223 in eight months of 2015.

The seasonal rush of travellers, in particular UAE residents returning for the start of the academic year, boosted the traffic, a statement said.

Spurred by additional capacity and new services launched by a number of carriers including Emirates and flydubai, Eastern Europe was the fastest-expanding market in terms of percentage growth (67.9 per cent), followed by Asia (13 per cent), South America (11.7 per cent), and the Indian Subcontinent (11.7 per cent).

London was the top destination city with 371,320 passengers, followed closely by Doha (252,616 passengers) and Kuwait (240,712 passengers).

The average number of passengers per flight during the month was 237, one of the highest DXB has ever seen. Aircraft movements totalled 33,827 during the month compared to 34,773 movements in August 2015.