32% say Gulf airports 'are best in the world'

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PASSENGER GROWTH: Dubai Airport has been named as the fastest growing in the world during 2007. (Getty Images)

Opinions have been split among Arabian Business readers in a poll asking them how they rated the region's airports.

While nearly 30 percent of respondents believed they were among the best in the world for both service and flight times, 15 percent said they dreaded having to travel by air from the region because airport facilities were so poor.

The views come in the same week that Dubai International announced it had handled a record 18.46 million passengers in the first half of 2008, registering a growth of 13.80 per cent over the first half of 2007.

The airport handled an average of three million passengers per month throughout the first half this year, making it the busiest period in the airport's history. It was the world's fastest growing airport in 2007 in terms of international passenger throughput, figures revealed.

And Abu Dhabi International Airport's passenger traffic rose by 35 percent year-on-year.

In Saudi Arabia, it was announced that King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah will have a new state-of-the-art terminal with 74 jet bridges. The new airport terminal receive 30 million passengers annually and would be ready by 2012.

But the increases in passengers and improvements in facilities did not impress more than 30 per cent of people who took part in our online poll on Wednesday. They called for action to be taken to improve facilities.

Another 23 percent of respondents said they were impressed with the facilities at airports in the Gulf region but did criticise the number of flight delays that occurred.

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