(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai int?l also sees runway work moving ahead of schedule
dubai international airport has seen passenger traffic rise almost 14 per cent in a year maintaining its strong growth despite ongoing runway construction works.
the airport said in a press statement on tuesday that work on upgrading its southern runway had been completed four days ahead of schedule but continuing work on the northern runway was expected to slow total traffic growth between may and july.
passenger numbers rose 13.7 per cent to 6159634 in april 2014 up from 5418946 passengers recorded in april 2013. this is the third time in four months the airport has recorded monthly traffic of more than six million passengers. during the first four months of 2014 traffic climbed 11.9 per cent to 24521454 passengers up from 21905363 in the same period last year.
regionally western europe achieved the highest growth in passenger numbers in april with 172223 more passengers arriving in the month. passengers from the indian sub-continent made up the second-largest increase of 166241. growth was driven by double-digit increases in passenger traffic from pakistani cities karachi and islamabad.
despite the strong growth so far this year traffic growth is expected to taper off between may and july this year with dubai international reduced to a single runway as the airport’s two runways are consecutively closed for refurbishment and upgrades the airport said.
several airlines have moved flights to al maktoum international airport at dubai world central during the refurbishment period.
dubai airports chief executive paul griffiths said dubai international’s runway upgrade programme was ahead of schedule with work on the southern runway completed on tuesday — four days ahead of the planned may 31 completion date. the southern runway is now back in operation and the additional days would be used for work on the northern runway which was now closed for refurbishment and would remain so until july 20.
“we are pleased to report that we were able to deliver the southern runway four days ahead of schedule thanks to the hard work and co-operation between dubai airports dubai aviation engineering projects and construction crews. importantly we have managed to do so without any significant inconvenience to our passengers. operations at both airports have been smooth to date due largely to a robust planning process and timely coordination of day-to-day changes between all stakeholders” griffiths said.
“while there is still a lot of work to be done by august we will be well placed to resume the strong growth achieved so far this year with new runways that can accommodate more aircraft while improving efficiency and service to our passengers.”
during the first 27 days of the project 2500 construction workers were involved in refurbishing the four-kilometre long runway. a total of 800000 tonnes of aggregates 11000 airfield lighting luminaires 1050km of cabling 1750 new manholes and 8.3km of drainage piping will be used on both runways during the refurbishment programme.
in other monthly statistics total aircraft movements reached 31234 in april 2014 climbing 2.5 per cent from the 30469 movements recorded in april last year. in the first four months of the year total aircraft movements rose to 125928 up 3.6 per cent from 121599 movements in the same period in 2013.
cargo volumes also continued to climb rising 3.7 per cent in april to 207317 tonnes up from 199985 tonnes recorded in the same month last year. year to date volumes totalled 821193 tonnes up 4.6 per cent from the 784832 tonnes achieved in the first four months of 2014.
— business?khaleejtimes.com
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