Dubai International Airport is the fastest growing airport on the earth, as measured by annual seat capacity growth, in line with the most recent statistics from OAG.
The OAG FACTS – Frequency and Capacity Trend Statistics – report for April shows that 757,000 additional seats would be available from Dubai International Airport in April 2013 in comparison with April 2012.
Figures also show that the center Eastern hub has increased capacity by a mean of 12 per cent per year since 2004.
The second fastest growing airport relating to seat capacity is Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International, which has added 552,000 seats over the past three hundred and sixty five days.
Istanbul Atatürk Airport – recently named the fastest growing airport of 2012 as measured by annual passenger numbers – is placed third, having seen the variety of seats rise by 529,000 between April 2012 and April 2013.
John Grant, executive vp, OAG explained: “Dubai International Airport’s consistent increase in capacity during the last decade was largely driven by the expansion of Dubai-based carrier Emirates.
“Over the last three hundred and sixty five days alone, the airline has added nine new destinations, which equates to just about 22,000 additional seats everyday. Capacity has also increased significantly on a good number of existing routes, including the Dubai International-London Heathrow service, which became an all-A380 operation in December 2012.
“At Istanbul Atatürk Airport, the ongoing capacity increase will also be attributed to the national carrier, Turkish Airlines, but this isn’t necessarily the case at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“Seat capacity from the Malaysian hub has almost doubled since 2004, with low-cost carriers making essentially the mostsome of the most significant contribution.
“AirAsia, as an example, can have 13 per cent more seats this April when compared with April 2012, while low-cost airlines operating from the airport now account for around 1/2 overall capacity.”
Indonesia’s Jakarta International Airport, which was initially designed to deal with 22 million passengers but is currently operating at greater than double that capacity, is fourth at the list of airports that experience added probably the most seats during the last 365 days.
Like Kuala Lumpur International, seat capacity have been boosted by LCCs, including Lion Air, Indonesia AirAsia and Citilink, all of that have added seats for April 2013.
Mexico City International Airport completes the head-five, with just three carriers – Aeromexico, Interjet and Volaris – accounting for 91 per cent of the 458,000 seats which were added since April 2012.
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