31/01/2012 07:37 AST
Dubai Airports on Monday announced traffic statistics for Dubai World Central, or DWC, that showed the airport handled 89,729 tonnes of air freight during its first full calendar year of operations.
In 2011, DWC’s average monthly air cargo volumes totalled 7,477 tonnes compared to 795 tonnes per month recorded during the airport’s first half year of operations in 2010. Cargo transit traffic comprised 32,989 tonnes or 37 per cent of volume.
“Although the airport is in its infancy, incremental cargo traffic growth has been steady and continues to ramp up as new operations are launched,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said in an e-mailed statement to Khaleej Times.
Aircraft movements for the year came in at 8,198 of which 3,609 (44 per cent) were commercial cargo flights, 4,548 (55.5 per cent) were test and training flights and 41 (0.5 per cent) were general aviation operations. During 2011, 36 airlines operated into DWC, predominantly as cargo charter operations.
“DWC has gotten off to a good start when you consider how weak the global freight market has been over the last couple of years and its clear to see that with trials later this year for passengers, the next planned stage of development is now to move beyond a single scope of operations to accommodate passenger traffic too,” Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, told Khaleej Times.
“Sea to air freight traffic growth was particularly robust as airlines took advantage of the airport’s bonded link to the Jebel Ali port. Additionally the road feeder service operating between Dubai International and DWC facilitated the smooth flow of transit airfreight. Combined, Dubai’s two airports handled 2,279,219 tonnes of airfreight in 2011, which is up marginally from 2010,” Griffiths said.
“It’s clear DWC will play a pivotal role in providing the capacity needed to accommodate projected growth,” he added. “In terms of cargo, the need is more immediate. By 2015, cargo volumes will top three million tonnes exceeding the current capacity of Dubai International. We expect a good proportion of that growth to spill over to DWC.”
Dubai International will continue to serve as the primary focus of expansion and we will be investing $7.8 billion to boost capacity to 90 million passengers by 2018.
Khaleej Times
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