New route capacity and a runway closure at Dubai International saw a spike in passenger numbers at Sharjah International Airport in the second quarter. The airport in the country's third largest airport handled 2.6 million passengers in the three months ending June 30, up 23.1 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to data from Sharjah International.
A number of airlines switched operations to Sharjah International from May 1 until July 20 because of capacity constraining runway refurbishment work at the nation's busiest airport, Dubai International.
"The biggest gain may come from Cebu Pacific,” said Will Horton, senior analyst at CAPA — Centre Aviation, in an email.
"Cebu Pacific operated out of Sharjah during the Dubai runway works. While in Sharjah, Cebu and Air Arabia had a small marketing initiative to feed the Sharjah-Manila flight,” he said.
Other carriers like Air India, Jet Airways and Pakistan International Airlines raised capacity at Sharjah International during the 80-day runway closure at Dubai International.
Aircraft movements rose by 20.5 per cent to 19.7 thousand in the second quarter and the amount of freight handled at the airport increased by 11.24 per cent to 100.4 thousand tonnes.
Aircraft movements
Horton said that an increase in Air Arabia's Middle East capacity in the second quarter was "due to increases put in last year, but some of that is now coming down” and that its India capacity, which has also increased, is "staying [up] or slightly increasing.”
Half-year passenger numbers at Sharjah International for the six months ending June 30 were up 13.38 per cent to 5.6 million. Aircraft movements increased 8.67 per cent to 5.6 million, however, handled freight decreased by 10.7 per cent over the six-month period to 170.6 thousand tonnes.
John Strickland, Director at UK-based JLS Consulting, said in an email, "success [at Sharjah International] mirrors that of key customer Air Arabia as well as picking up some one off traffic due to moves from Dubai by some airlines whilst runway work was undertaken.”
Air Arabia carried 1.6 million passengers in the second quarter, up 8 per cent, and over the first half of the year carried 3.36 million passenger, up 11 per cent from the same period a year ago.