Dubai airport terminal.

DUBAI — Dubai airport has soared ahead of London’s Heathrow, riding a boom in long-haul flights between Asia and the West to become the world’s top international travel hub, UAE airport authorities said Tuesday.

Traffic at the airport increased 6.1 percent last year to 70.47 million passengers, Dubai Airports said, adding that it expected a further surge in traveller numbers in 2015.

Dubai International is home to Emirates, the Middle East’s largest carrier, which, along with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and Qatar Airways, has seized a significant portion of travel between the West, Asia and Australasia.

“This historic milestone is the culmination of over five decades of double-digit average growth,” Dubai Airports Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said in a statement.

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said Dubai International would boost its annual capacity to 90 million passengers this year with the opening of Concourse D — a new hall for arrivals and departures.

Dubai has spent years trying to diversify its economy with core sectors now including trade, transport and tourism.

Aided by a rapid expansion in capacity, aviation is expected to account for more than a third of the emirate’s GDP by 2020.