Dubai International Airport has been named the world's busiest international airport after seeing total of 83.6 million passengers in 2016, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai airports said on Tuesday.
However, the figures released on Tuesday by Dubai International Airport fall short of an estimate of 85 million passengers authorities had hoped to have in 2016, he added.
It was Dubai airport’s second slowest annual growth rate in at least eight years, he said, adding that authorities hope to have 89 million passengers in 2017, which would represent growth of about 6.5 per cent.
The addition of 11 new passenger destinations by local carriers including Emirates and flydubai lifted passenger traffic through Dubai airport, the operator said.
India’s SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Air India also started new services, while Nepal Airlines and Russia’s Rossiya Airlines launched flights to Dubai.
In December 2016 alone, traffic increased 9.3 per cent to 7.7 million passengers.
Dubai overtook London’s Heathrow to become the world’s busiest airport for international traffic in 2014. Heathrow handled 76 million passengers in 2016, up 1 per cent, according to its website.
Heathrow’s figure includes domestic passengers whereas nearly all of Dubai’s traffic is international.
Dubai has since set its sights on overtaking the world’s busiest airports in Atlanta and Beijing by 2020.
Atlanta saw 101.5 million passengers in 2015 while Beijing handled 89.9 million.