Taxis overseen by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai carried more than 107 million passengers on 52 million trips over the first six months of this year, the government organisation said.

Yousef Mohammed Al Ali, chief executive of the RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said the taxi bookings through the Booking and Dispatch Centre rose to three million, an increase of as much as 22% compared with the same period last year.

“About 45.08% of taxi bookings executed were made through automated channels during the first half of this year, which compares well with the figure recorded during the same period last year of 42.76%,” he said. “The number of bookings made through the Smart Taxi App amounted to 175,000.”

“The Booking and Dispatch Centre has received 4.5 million calls in [the first six months of] this year, with a 10% increase over the number of calls received during the same period last year,” he added.