Abu Dhabi’s airport records 34.3 per cent growth so far

Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) has reported a 22.9 per cent year-on-year jump in passenger traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport for the month of August.

A total of 869,868 passengers used the airport during the month, compared to 707,671 last year, with the year-to-date figures reaching 5,962,175 - up 34.3 per cent against last year’s 4,439,610 over the same period.

Passengers to and from other Gulf States rose particularly strongly, with Bahrain traffic up 44.4 per cent, Oman up 33.1 per cent, Qatar up 35.2 per cent and Saudi Arabia – the largest Gulf market for the airport - up 18.3 per cent.

The UK saw a strong jump in traffic, up 30.5 per cent, helped by an ADAC advertising campaign celebrating the connections from the airport to Heathrow and other UK destinations.  Other strong performers included India, up 31.3 per cent, and the Philippines, up 74.1 per cent.

The Philippines figures were boosted by the frequency increase of Etihad flights from four per week in August 2007 to one flight a day since October 2007. The month also saw the first flights by Pakistani airline Air Blue, adding to and supporting the country’s position as the second-largest market to and from Abu Dhabi.

Rudy Vercelli, CEO of ADAC, welcomed another month of strong growth. He said, “We continue to meet or exceed our targets for the year with impressive growth across all sectors of the business.

“In August, we welcomed our 40th airline customer, Air Blue and the continuing addition of new carriers is an important part of our development strategy and complementary to the significant growth of our home carrier, Etihad Airways.”

Work continued during the month on a range of infrastructure projects which will boost even further the capacity of the airport.  These included the second runway, new air traffic control tower and new terminal facilities. 

Terminal 3 will bring the total passenger capacity at the airport to more than 12 million; ADAC estimates that by the end of 2008 total traffic will top nine million passengers.  

The airport’s top five destinations during the month were Doha, London, Cairo, Bahrain and Bangkok. The busiest day of the month, August 1st, saw a total of 32,567 passengers passing through the airport.