Passenger traffic at Dubai International airport reached 7.6 million in April, a decrease of  0.1 per cent compared to the figure reported on the same month last year, and 2.9 per cent lower compared to the figure reported in March this year.

The April passenger figure takes the airport's overall passenger volume for the first four months of the year to 30.35 million, up 0.8 per cent year-on-year.

Flight movements at the airport contracted by 3 per cent, to reach 34,244, over the figure reported in April of 2017.

Cargo volumes are also down by 0.7 per cent to reach 217,881 tonnes, while freight volumes are down 2.6 per cent to reach 854,359 tonnes.

According to data released by Dubai Airports, Eastern Europe was the fastest expanding market with traffic growing by 28 per cent in April, followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (17.7 per cent) and Africa (9.9 per cent).

India retained its position as the top destination country by passenger numbers with close to 1.03 million passengers during the month. Saudi Arabia placed second with 556,640 passengers, followed by the UK with 530,404 passengers and Pakistan with 369,493 passengers.

London was the top destination city with 315,979 passengers, followed by Mumbai (202,981 passengers), and Jeddah (185,017 passengers).

Dubai International processed 88.2 million passengers in 2017, growing 5.5 per cent over the previous year, and half a per cent below its initial forecast of 89 million.

Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said they expect passenger traffic to reach 90.3 million in 2018, a modest 2.3 per cent rise compared to the 2017 figure.