The combined freight handled by Dubai International airport and Dubai World Central jumped 18.1% last year, further bolstering the Middle East's position as a global trade hub.
This feat comes in spite of Dubai's total cargo dropping by 3.1%, to 2.4m tonnes. DWC, however, handled 758,371 tonnes, a huge increase of 262.5%, which illustrates the shift of all freighter traffic from Dubai International to the new DWC in early 2014. Passenger traffic also increased in Dubai, which has now surpassed London Heathrow as the busiest airport for international passenger traffic.
At other major cargo centres business is also booming: Hong Kong grew by 6%, handling 4.4m tonnes of freight in 2014 while Shanghai grew 7.3%, handling 3.6m tonnes last year. Frankfurt handled 2.16m tonnes, Los Angeles 1.8m tonnes, Amsterdam Schiphol 1.6m tonnes and Heathrow handled 1.5m tonnes.
