Qatar’s Hamad airport sees 12.4% increase in passengers in 2019

Qatar's Hamad International Airport, the country’s main commercial airport, reported on Sunday a 12.4% increase in annual passenger traffic for 2019.

The airport, the base for state carrier Qatar Airways, handled 38.8 million passengers last year, it said in a tweet, up from 34.5 million for 2018.

The airport announced in October expansion plans to handle more than 60 million passengers by 2022, the year that Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup.

Hamad International opened in 2014 with a capacity of around 30 million passengers a year, replacing the Doha International Airport.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Gareth Jones)