By Shereen El Gazzar www.thenational.ae
It is “inevitable” that Dubai will have the busiest airport in the world, overtaking the top global hubs Atlanta and Beijing, and exceeding 100 million passengers a year.
The Airports Council International, the trade body, revealed on Monday its rankings for last year, putting Dubai International (DXB) in third place globally with 78 million passengers handled last year, up from sixth in 2014.
In response to the rise in the rankings, the chief executive of the emirate’s airports operator said yesterday that it was “difficult to project when exactly we will ascend to the No 1 spot for total [passenger] traffic, but we do believe it is inevitable”.
“Considering the fact that we do not have domestic traffic, leapfrogging London Heathrow, Chicago O’Hare and Haneda [in Japan] to take over the No 3 position for total traffic is an important milestone,” said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports.
Atlanta in the United States handled more than 101 million passengers last year, while Beijing handled more than 89 million. Chicago, in fourth spot, handled more than 76 million, closely followed by Tokyo with 75 million and Heathrow with 74 million passengers. More info
