Dubai International continues single digit cargo growth into July

Dubai International (DXB) continues its rollercoaster of single digit monthly cargo growth into July, gaining 5 percent year over year to pull the seven-month average up slightly to 2.1 percent.

DXB recorded an increase in cargo over July, with freight volumes rising year-over-year to 213,258 tonnes. During the first seven months of 2017, DXB handled a total of 1,516,169 tonnes of cargo, compared to 1,485,177 tonnes during the same period in 2016.

Those numbers are at least a reflection of Emirates’ freight operations – while other carriers fly into DXB, Emirates commands the vast majority of bellyhold cargo – and with all full-freighter activity happening exclusively at Dubai World Central (DWC) to the south, DXB’s gains are a more a reflection of the carrier’s ability to fill bellyhold space. With flight movements during July down 4.7 percent to 34,181 year-over-year, it follows that Emirates available tonne kilometers (ATKs) are also down. The privately-held carrier does not post regular reports on operations.

DXB’s slower growth is also a reflection of a shift to the emirate’s new freight hub, DWC, which is now handling approximately one third of the emirate’s air freight.

The last month’s results aren’t yet in for the newer airport, but freight volumes at Dubai World Central (DWC) rose 3.2 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to 443,835 tonnes during the first half of 2017.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports accredited the rise to “both scheduled and chartered carriers contributing to traffic volumes at the airport.” Those scheduled and charter numbers took a sharp upward turn in 2014 when authorities redirected all freighter flights to the newer DWC, from the Dubai International Airport (DXB) to the north. That growth seems to have leveled off now.

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