Dubai overtakes Heathrow as top international airport

Dubai: Dubai International Airport surpassed UK's Heathrow as the world's busiest for international travel after handling 70.4 million passengers last year despite major runway upgrades that limited traffic for 80 days.

Dubai handled 70.4 million passengers last year, up 6.1 per cent over the previous year, Dubai Airports said in a statement today.

This followed robust passenger traffic growth of 7.5 per cent in December with 6,498,573 passengers passing through the facility compared to 6,047,126 recorded in the corresponding month last year. The number is projected to go up to 79 million passengers in 2015.

About 68.1 million international passengers used London's Heathrow in the same period.

Heathrow has been trying to increase capacity for a number of years, a spokeswoman said.

"This historic milestone is the culmination of over five decades of double-digit average growth," Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of both Dubai Airports and Emirates, said.

Dubai's main hub had already passed London's Heathrow as the world's biggest hub for international passengers in the first quarter of last year, but the upgrade to the Gulf airport's two runways over the summer months had meant the UK airport might retain its crown over the course of the full year.