Closure of one of the two runways for 45 days at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in the first half of the year fuelled a decline in the gateway’s air cargo tonnage.

The UAE airport handled 1,036,474 tonnes of air freight during the period, a significant decline of 18.3 per cent on the same period last year.

A significant portion of cargo traffic at DXB is bellyhold as all freighter traffic now goes through Dubai World Central (DWC).