Business Traveler, February 2015
n Take Offs Landings T he numbers are in and it looks like Dubai International has edged out London Heathrow as the worlds busiest airport for international passenger traffic In the 12 month period from September 2013 to September 2014 a total of 689 million passengers passed through Dubai International versus 678 million at Heathrow according to numbers from Airports Council International As with all statistics some caveats and disclaimers are in order Taken together London area airports Gatwick Stansted et al served well over 100 million passengers during the same time period making it still by far the worlds busiest city for international air travel And despite serious capacity restrictions LHR still managed to put up nearly a half million aircraft movements takeoffs and landings as compared with 350000 relatively unfettered operations at 24 hour DXB Nevertheless Dubais accomplishment is to be applauded not least because it was only in 2008 that DXB broke into the Top 20 busiest airports in the world The meteoric rise in traffic means that the number of passengers has almost doubled in the past seven years It will also undoubtedly add more fire to the already heated debate in the UK over the fate of Londons premier aerodrome The airports feat also points to the success of the emirates policies calculated to make it the home of superlatives the tallest building the biggest shopping mall and now the busiest international airport in the world Dubai International A quick look at Dubai Internationals 54 n February 2015 Visit businesstravelerusa com growth curve shadows the development of the emirate itself Dubai Airport opened in 1960 By 1969 there were 9 airlines to 20 destinations by 2004 there were 107 airlines to more than 160 destinations Today there are 140 airlines operating to 250 destinations Concourse C makes up most of the Terminal 1 complex also known as the Sheikh Rashid Terminal and handles most commercial flights to Dubai Terminal 2 is home to Dubais budget airline flydubai Terminal 3 which is dedicated to Emirates was opened in 2008 along with an associated airside facility known as Concourse B This addition nearly tripled Dubai Internationals total capacity to 60 million passengers The Terminal 3 A trio of global airports point to solutions for the projected crush of world gone travel happy PRESSURE Points 1 2
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