Dubai’s main airport, home to Emirates, recorded its busiest passenger traffic in August as the Middle East aviation hub benefited from the rush of people returning for the start of the academic year. Passenger traffic climbed 6.6 percent to 8.23 million last month, the airport operator said in a statement. India remained the top destination, followed by the U.K. and Saudi Arabia, while London was the top destination city, followed by Kuwait and Mumbai in India. “We’re very well spread if you look at the growth of traffic, particularly from the Asian region,” Dubai Airports Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “By the mid-2030s, we are expecting something like 1.3 billion additional passenger journeys to originate or terminate within Asia.” Dubai International Airport is already the world’s busiest by international passengers as the sheikhdom develops into a hub for trans-continental traffic between Asia, the Americas and Europe. Dubai is also expanding a second hub, the Al Maktoum International Airport, which is mainly used for cargo traffic at present. Dubai International expects to increase annual passenger traffic to 100 million by the end of the decade, Griffiths said, adding that plans to begin work on the second phase of the city’s second airport are on track.