Dubai International airport welcomed 81.4 million passengers between January and November in 2018, a 1.3 per cent rise on the corresponding period the previous year.

The airport has another month to meet the annual passenger forecast of 90.3 million, which the airport operator, Dubai Airports, made in early 2018.

In 2017, Dubai International processed 88.23 million passengers, up 5.5 per cent over 2016.

The forecasted growth for 2018 is significantly lower at 2.3 per cent.

According to Dubai Airports, Dubai International welcomed 6.9 million customers in November, some 0.8 per cent lower compared to the same month in 2017.

Flight movements in November also fell by 1.2 per cent although the average number of customers per flight was slightly up marginally (0.5 per cent).

Dubai Airports said waiting times at the airport fell by 45 per cent in November due to its “state-of-the-art operations centre” which uses real-time information to improve service and efficiency, as well as additional smart gates that help speed up the immigration process.

Dubai Airports is planning to cut capacity at Dubai International when it closes one of the airport’s two runways for 45 days between 16 April and 30 May 2019. This is for the resurfacing and replacement of ground lighting and other infrastructure.

Dubai Duty Free last week reported annual sales of AED7.36bn ($2.01bn) for the full year 2018, up 4.3 per cent on 2017. It is the first time the retail arm breached the $2bn mark since it began operating in 1983.