Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport grew 6.2 percent year-on-year in September and is expected to rise in coming weeks due to a rise in travellers for the Islamic haj pilgrimage, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.

The world’s fourth busiest airport handled 4.24 million passengers, up from just under 4.0 million in the same period last year, it said in a statement.

“We have had a good year so far in terms of passenger traffic and with the Islamic pilgrimage … just a few days away, we expect to see already robust passenger numbers surge over the coming weeks,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports.

The strongest passenger growth came from Russia with a 33.9 percent increase, the Gulf Arab countries with 31.9 percent, and Eastern Europe growing 18.7 percent.

One of the seven United Arab Emirates, the trade and business hub of Dubai was hit last year by the $25 billion debt restructuring of Dubai World.

The emirate’s economy expanded by 2.8 percent in real terms last year as growth in trade and the retail sector helped it recover from its contraction of 2.4 percent in 2009 after the global financial crisis and its property crash.

In August, passenger traffic grew 0.8 percent to 4 million from a year ago, much slower than July’s 9.7 percent jump, as the number of travellers fell due to the holy fasting month of Ramadan and regional political instability.

Passenger numbers at Dubai International Airport are set to exceed 75 million by 2015, Dubai Airports said in June.

Government-run Dubai Airports owns and manages the operation and development of both of Dubai’s airports, Dubai International and Dubai World Central.

Dubai World Central, the first phase of which was opened for cargo operations in June 2010 and for general aviation in April 2011, is planned to become the world’s largest airport with a capacity of 160 million passengers per year.

Source: REUTERS