A new 10.8 billion dirham ($2.9 billion) terminal at Abu Dhabi's international airport will be operational in July 2017, aiming to double passenger capacity, Tony Douglas, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Airports, told reporters on Monday.

The 700,000 sq m terminal is designed to boost the capacity of the airport to 30 million passengers annually and will be used by Etihad Airways, the emirate's flag carrier, and its partners. Currently, the airport handles around 15 million passengers per year.

The mid-field terminal, so called because of its location between the airport's two runways, is one of the key infrastructure projects under construction in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

A consortium of Turkey's TAV Insaat, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Co and Dubai's Arabtec is building the terminal. - Reuters