DUBAI, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Dubai International Airport (DXB) revealed Monday its passenger traffic growth in 2017, which didn't meet DXB's set target, United Arab Emirates (UAE) state news agency WAM reported.
The number of passengers increased by 5.5 percent year-on-year in 2017, the report said, reaching 88.2 million passengers, which falls short of the "nearly 90 million passengers" target set by Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths last year.
The airport recorded 7.35 million passengers per month throughout the year with peak travel months January, July and August having breached the 8-million barrier, the report added.
DXB added six new scheduled passenger airlines during the year, including SalamAir from Oman, Sudan's Badr Airlines, and Air Moldova, while home based and government-controlled carriers Emirates Airline and flydubai added three and ten new passenger destinations respectively.
The network expansion spurred growths in top regions including South America, with 36.1 percent growth, Eastern Europe, growing by 25.3 percent and Asia, up 17.9 percent.
Last year's passenger demand is also influenced by the nearly six-month long ban of electronic devices aboard passenger aircraft from the UAE to the United States, and the ongoing diplomatic stand-off between the Arab quartet, namely UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, and Qatar, which began on June 5.
The focus in 2018 will be on "the DXB Plus Program, which aims to expand the airport's annual capacity to 118 million passengers through process improvements and use of new technology," Griffiths said.
