Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport, one of the fastest-growing global hubs, rose 8 per cent last year to a record of almost 51 million passengers.
"In a year that was characterised by economic uncertainty, political instability and high oil prices, passenger growth continued unabated driven by new routes and additional frequencies as airlines capitalised on Dubai's attractiveness as a business and tourism destination and efficiency as a transfer hub," said Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports.
"That trend will continue in 2012 with our two largest airlines - Emirates and flydubai - set to receive additional aircraft throughout the year."
The number of passengers at the airport was 50.98 million last year compared with 47.2 million in 2010, Dubai Airports said yesterday.
Passenger numbers reached 4.69 million last month, up 10.2 per cent from 4.26 million a year earlier.
"Aviation is big business in Dubai supporting 250,000 jobs and US$22 billion [Dh80.81bn] in economic activity or 28 per cent of GDP," said Mr Griffiths.
Passenger traffic on routes linking Dubai to eastern Europe grew 81 per cent last year, the figures showed. The UK and Saudi Arabia were among the strongest markets in terms of total passenger numbers.
To accommodate this growth, Dubai Airports is investing $7.8bn in an airport expansion programme for Dubai International as it aims to boost its capacity from 60 million passengers a year to 90 million by 2018.
The next major step in these plans would be the completion of Concourse 3, described as the "world's largest dedicated A380 facility", scheduled for the end of this year, Dubai Airports said.
Air freight traffic was up slightly last month to 189,593 tonnes, an increase of 0.8 per cent compared with December 2010.
But cargo traffic last year was hit by economic uncertainty in Europe and the US, with a decline in consumer confidence leading to a drop in exports, from Asia in particular, Dubai Airports said.
Cargo volumes totalled 2.19 million tonnes last year, down 1.5 per cent from the previous year.
Air Arabia, a low-cost airline based in Sharjah, yesterday announced it had carried 4.7 million passengers last year, up 6 per cent on 2010, as it added new routes to cities in Russia, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, RAK Airways announced it would start flights to Kathmandu three times a week from February 15.
