Business & Finance Club - Dubai: Dubai International airport crossed the 4 million passenger mark for the first time even as it reported its tenth consecutive month of double-digit cargo growth for July.

The airport handled 4.31 million passengers in July compared to 3.77 million in July 2009, a year on year increase of 14.3 per cent.

The year to date traffic reached 26.86 million, up 16 per cent compared to 23.17 million in the corresponding period in 2009. The closest the airport has previously come to the 4 million mark was in March 2010 when the monthly traffic reached 3.97 million.

The largest regional traffic growth in July was recorded in Eastern Europe (up 219 per cent), Asia (up 34 per cent) and Russia and CIS (up 29 per cent).

The highest passenger volumes were recorded in the Western European sector, the AGCC and the Indian subcontinent driven by capacity increases and new routes launched by Emirates to Tokyo, Amsterdam, Prague and Madrid.

Dubai International handled 197,845 tonnes of freight in July compared to 160,289 tonnes during the same period in 2009, an increase of 23.5 per cent. Year to date, the airport handled 1.30 million tonnes of cargo, up 25.5 per cent.

Abu Dhabi growth

Abu Dhabi Airports Co said passenger traffic in July grew 9.2 per cent from the year-earlier period to a record 1 million.

Cargo traffic increased 12.3 per cent in July to 36,755 tons, while aircraft movements increased by 10.1 percent, the state-run facility said in an emailed statement yesterday.