Dubai Airports Company announced today, the passenger traffic at Dubai International exceeded the 4.5 million mark for the fourth months according to the April traffic report released. Passenger traffic in April reached 4,566,673 an increase of 7.8 per cent compared to 4,237,548 during the corresponding month in the year 2011.

The performance during the first four months of the year 2012 has marked the traffic to 18,828,279, a noticeable increase of 13.9 per cent over the 16,525,376 recorded during the same period last year.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) remain top of the list of regions with the largest increase in total passenger numbers (an increase of 72,136 passengers), followed by Africa (an increase of 59,063) and Western Europe (an increase of 49,113). While traffic to Russia and CIS also witnessed an i increase growth in April of an additional 46,375 passengers.

Shrinking of Middle Eastern traffic continued in April (a decrease of 22,270 passengers) consquence to the eco-political situation in some parts of the region.

South America remained the strongest market in terms of percentage passenger growth (an increase of
92.7 per cent) as a result of recently introduced Emirates services to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, followed by Russia and CIS (an increase of
35.5 per cent), and Australasia (an increase of
22 per cent).

Dubai International recorded a total of 28,503 aircraft movements in April, up 7.2 per cent compared to 26,597 in April 2011. The year to date movements increased 7.7 per cent to 114,517, compared to 106,302 recorded during the first four months in of the year 2011.

Dubai International handled 186,385 tonnes of cargo in April 2012 compared to 179,397 tonnes in April 2011, up 3.9 per cent and in line with forecasts for moderately improved volumes during 2012. Year to date cargo volumes reached 703,826 tonnes, an increase of 1.8 per cent compared to 688,537 tonnes during the corresponding period in 2011.

Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports commented "Crossing the 4.5 million mark in terms of monthly passenger numbers is becoming the norm at Dubai International and we could break the 5 million passenger ceiling during the summer peak. “Ensuring that the millions of passengers that use the facility every month pass through smoothly and efficiently is one of the top priorities for Dubai Airports. To cope with the seasonal rush we will launch the annual Summer Mission programme, which will see the deployment of over 500 May I Help You staff across the airport. That, along with the expansion of our transfer facility in Terminal 3 and the opening of an express check-in facility for flydubai customers in Terminal 2, will help accommodate the record passenger flows."