Dubai airport passenger traffic hits record in July
DUBAI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, jumped 14 percent from a year earlier to a monthly record of 7.62 million people in July, the airport's operator said on Monday.
Growing tourism and trade ties with the rest of the Middle East, Asia and other regions of the world are fueling traffic growth at Dubai's airport
July's sharp rise was partly due to the timing of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which normally reduces business travel in the region. Most of Ramadan occurred during June this year, but it extended into July last year.
During the first seven months of this year, passenger traffic rose 7.0 percent to 48.12 million.
Freight handled by Dubai International shrank 1.2 percent in July to 203,153 tonnes, but in the first seven months of 2016 it rose 3.2 percent to 1.49 million tonnes. Only some of Dubai's air freight passes through Dubai International as another facility, Dubai World Central, handles pure cargo operations. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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