Dubai International Airport continues to make progress in its quest to overtake London's Heathrow as the busiest airport on the planet.

Much has been made about the rise of the United Arab Emirates-based aviation hub in recent months and the lack of any concrete plans to expand Heathrow suggest it is only a matter of time before Dubai's main airport becomes the world's number one.

New figures released by Dubai Airports showed that 5,418,946 passengers passed through the facility in April - an increase of 18.7 per cent on the corresponding month in 2012 - and this is the ninth consecutive month of double-digit growth.

Chief executive officer at Dubai Airports - the firm that runs the complex - Paul Griffiths thinks this rate of expansion should continue during the next quarter.

"Accordingly we are continually increasing capacity at Dubai International, the most recent example of which was the opening of the first phase of expansion at Terminal 2," he remarked.

April was also a strong month for cargo transportation at the airport, with 199,985 tonnes of freight being handled at the site - a 7.3 per cent upturn year-on-year.