Author : Suzanne
Courtesy - Arabian Business.com
Dubai International Airport was the 15th busiest in the world last year for passenger numbers while it ranked fifth for cargo traffic, a new report by the Airports Council International has showed.
A total of 40.9m passengers used Dubai's airport in 2009, a growth of 9.2 percent on the previous year.
The figures showed that Dubai was one of only four of the world 20 busiest airports to add new growth in 2009, alongside Beijing (ranked third), Bangkok (16th) and San Francisco (20th).
The ACI list showed Atlanta in the US was the world's busiest airport with almost 88 million passengers, well ahead of London Heathrow (66m) in second place.
For cargo, Dubai also saw growth in 2009 of 5.6 percent, making it one of only three airports to see growth. Memphis and Beijing were the only others, with Memphis topping the world list.
Globally, airports saw passenger numbers decline by 2.7 percent last year while cargo volumes retracted by 8.2 percent.
ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said: "We are pleased to see that the global results for 2009 were less depressed than originally anticipated."
The ACI report said the Middle East had "maintained a more stable overall performance curve" throughout 2009, compared to other regions.
Source : Arabian Business.com
