Dubai International (DXB) saw 7.2 million passengers in September as traffic rose to 67.5 million for the year. Traffic was down slightly (-0.2%) in September due to the Eid Al Adha holidays that fell in September 2017. It was the sixth time this year that DXB’s monthly traffic surpassed the 7 million mark, helping finish off the third quarter with 23.8 million customers, up 1%.
A total of 7,197,866 customers were served in September (- 0.2%) and 6 million bags (+1.12%) were passed through the airport’s sophisticated 175 km long baggage system during the month. Smart Gate technology at DXB helps speed customers through immigration while state-of-the-art operations centre leverages real-time information to improve service and efficiency, leading to a reduction of 28% in wait times during September.
India remained DXB’s top destination country by customer volume, with total traffic reaching 957,748 during the month. The United Kingdom was the was second with 538,199 customers, followed by Saudi Arabia with 454,929 customers. Other markets of note include Australia (256,848), the US (252,264) and China (208,822).
The top three cities were London (329,778), Mumbai (199,829) and New Delhi (170,122). The fastest-growing regions were North America,(up by 15.2%,) Africa (up 10.9%) and CIS growing at 6.8%.