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Article: GULF GATEWAYS
- Article from:
- Airports International
- Article date:
- April 1, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Thomas Telford Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MARK PILLING
Sixty-two years ago an Imperial Airways aircraft stopped in Bahrain en-route from London to India putting this small island state on the international aviation map. In 1994 the airport recorded its busiest ever year, with passenger traffic up by 9.7% to nearly 3.3 million passengers.
Dubai, Bahrain's larger rival for Gulf traffic, had similar growth levels last year, handling 6.3 million passengers. The other major airport in the United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi - saw its passenger numbers increase to 3.2 million.
The greatest challenge for these airports has been to replace traffic lost by the arrival of Boeing 747-400 services in the ...