Passenger traffic at Dubai International, DXB, continued to grow steadily in February rising 8.8 percent to 6,948,157, according to the monthly traffic report issued by Dubai Airports today.

The operator said this brings the total year to date passenger traffic at the airport to 14,985,165, a robust growth of 9.3 percent compared to 13,711,181 recorded during the first two months of 2016.

Eastern Europe was the fastest expanding market in terms of percentage growth of 39.1 percent, followed by Asia with 23.8 percent and South America with 11.6 percent. India remained the top destination country with a total of 937,962 passengers, followed by the UK with 516,611 passengers, Saudi Arabia with 499,797 and Pakistan with 351,477. London topped the list of destination cities with 309,768 passengers, followed by Doha with 246,767 passengers, Bangkok with 203,432 and Mumbai with 194,108.

Flight movements at the airport totalled 32,483 during the month under review, a contraction of 2.7 percent from 33,398 movements recorded in February 2016. Year to date flight movements totalled 69,075, a marginal drop of 0.2 percent compared to 69,239 during the first two months last year.

The average number of passengers per movement during February reached 223 compared to 201 during the corresponding month in 2016, an increase of 11.1 percent.

The DXB recorded 192,704 tonnes of freight in February 2017, down 1.9 percent from 196,460 tonnes recorded in February 2016. Year to date freight volumes totalled 400,976, a growth of 0.8 percent compared to 397,942 handled during the corresponding period in 2016.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, "This robust growth in passenger numbers in February follows the record 8 million passengers in January, and with the seasonal rush of passengers over the spring break over the past four days, during which we welcomed over 1.1 million passengers, we are looking forward to impressive first quarter of the year results."