Dubai airport to become third busiest int'l hub by 2011
- Source: Xinhua
- [10:09 February 02 2010]
- Comments
Dubai International airport could become the world's third busiest airport by the end of 2011 as passenger numbers continue to grow, a local business paper reported Monday.
Dubai is poised to overtake long-established hubs such as Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, Emirates Business said, citing a research by the Center for Asia-Pacific Aviation.
With Emirates projecting capacity increase of 14 percent for 2009/2010, FlyDubai expanding rapidly and other foreign airlines flying in, Dubai International could come close to jumping up the world list by the end of 2010 but more probably by the end of 2011, the report said.
It said Dubai airport had expanded passenger traffic by better than 10 percent per year over the past decade.
Dubai also topped the list of 50 largest airports that managed to report growth last year, handling an extra 3.8 million passengers, marking an increase of 9.2 percent year-on-year, according to Emirates Business.
The report said that in 2008, Dubai pipped Singapore as the world's sixth largest international passenger airport, handling 300,000 more passengers than the Southeast Asian hub.
On Sunday, Dubai Airports, a government-owned airfield operator, said it plans to seek approval for expansion plans costing "billions of dirhams."
