Readers of Business Traveller (Germany), a high profile travel magazine have voted Dubai International Airport the Best in the Middle East and Africa in a survey for 2006. This is the fifth award the airport has received during the last year.

Masoud Mohammed Saleh, Manager of Exhibitions and Events at Dubai Department of Civil Aviation’s Marketing and Corporate Communications Directorate received the award at a ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany recently.

The airport award is given based on the quality of services, such as baggage delivery, check in, and front line staff services; facilities and duty free shopping – a major contributor towards achieving the award. Survey forms were included in Business Traveller Germany and sent to all regional subscribers, a large percentage of which turns them in with their choice.

HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, and CEO and Chairman of the Emirates Group, commented: “We closed 2006 with this prestigious award and feel proud of the recognition.”

He noted that Dubai International Airport has long been recognised as a premier airport in the Middle East and is beginning to emerge as the world’s best. “It has been our mission to be recognised as such, and this award is a reaffirmation of our efforts to provide the highest standard of service, and the best of facilities to passengers,” he said. He added that the direct involvement of passengers in recognising the best facility every year makes the awards all the more important.

The airport has been growing tremendously over the past decade, with passenger throughout almost doubling over the last six years. In 2006 the airport registered a growth of 16.2 per cent in terms of passenger traffic, which touched 29 million.

The airport’s achievements are remarkable given the fact that the facility has been handling considerably more traffic than its existing capacity of 22 million passengers annual. This year, DIA will handle an estimated 33 million passengers, and is projected to handle 60 million passengers by 2010. The completion of Terminal 3 and Concourse 2, which is exclusively for Emirates, by the end of 2007, will greatly increase the airport’s capacity, taking the quality of service to new heights.