Sharjah International Airport (SIA) welcomed 2.88 million passengers during the first quarter of 2018, marking a 5.1 per cent increase year-on-year, said a media report.

This brings the average monthly traffic in the quarter to over 960,000 passengers, up from 913,000 passengers in the same quarter of 2017, reported Emirates news agency Wam, citing airport figures.

During the period from early January to the end of March 2018, the number of scheduled and non-scheduled flights increased by 4.69 per cent to 19,441 flights, compared with 18,569 flights in the same period last year, the volume of cargo handled during the same period of this year was 42,987 tons, and cargo handling by sea - about 3136 tonnes.