The Hamad International Airport (HIA), which was recently ranked as the fifth best airport in the world by Skytrax, served nearly 8.72 million passengers in the forst quarter of 2018, reported Gulf Times.

The HIA also handled 52,250 aircraft movements and 514,299 tonnes of cargo from January to March 2018, according to Qatar Tribune. 

The HIA served a total of 3,035,469 passengers in January, 2,682,074 in February and 3,007,253 in March, which includes passengers arriving, departing and transferring through the airport.

It also handled 17,937 aircraft movements in January, 16,204 in February and 18,109 in March, which includes total number of aircraft take-offs and landings at the airport. 

Furthermore, HIA handled 514,299 tonnes of cargo in the first quarter of 2018, with 168,156 tonnes in January, 160,776 tonnes in February and 185,366 tonnes in March, which signifies a marked increase from last year. 

The HIA’s 2018 summer schedule is expected to be busy with many of its foreign airlines increasing their weekly flights to Doha. HIA will also serve approximately 15 new destinations this summer. 

It was also during the first quarter of this year that HIA received two ISO certifications — ISO/IEC 20000, the highest global standard for IT Service Management, as well as ISO 55001:2014 certification, the international standard for asset management.

It made Qatar’s airport the first in the Middle East to achieve this accreditation from the British Standards Institution.