Passenger traffic through Dubai's main airport, one of the world's busiest, rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 6.29 million people in March, the airport operator said on Monday. In the first three months of this year, passenger traffic at Dubai International increased 11.4 percent to 18.36 million people, driven by expansion in the networks of the Emirates and flydubai airlines, Dubai Airports said. Freight volume handled by the airport rose 6.7 percent in March to 228,154 tonnes, partly because of increasing strength in the world's developed economies, Dubai Airports added. Three-month freight volume rose 5.0 percent to 613,876 tonnes. Growth in the airport's operations is set to slow in the next two months as it plans to reduce the number of flights it handles by 26 percent during an 80-day period of construction work on its runways, starting from the beginning of May. Some of the traffic will be diverted to Dubai's new Al Maktoum International Airport.