Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), the owner-operator of Abu Dhabi International Airport (ADIA), said it was witnessing strong passenger growth and was expecting to handle nine million passengers by the end of the year.

Releasing its monthly traffic figures for the month of July, the ADAC said there has been  a 26.7 per cent jump in passenger traffic for July when compared to last year.

The passenger figures for the year-to-date matched a familiar growth rate seen at the airport this year with the numbers up 36.5 per cent – the airport having handled 5,092,307 arrival, departure and transit passengers from January through July, the company said.

The cargo maintained its steady growth with an increase of 15.1 per cent in July 2008 over last year. The year-to-date statistics for cargo almost mirrored that rate having posted an overall 15.7 jump over the same seven month period in the previous year, according to a top ADAC official.

Traffic figures for July also indicated that an average of 27,004 passengers per day passed through the airport; the month’s peak day performance registering a total of 31,783 passengers," said Rudy Vercelli, chief  executive officer of ADAC.

“Of course, we expect July to be busy due to the seasonal travel period but to increase such numbers by over a quarter for July and by over a third for the year-to-date is extremely healthy and demonstrates an increasing awareness and willingness for passengers to use the airport and, indeed, airlines to operate from here,” he noted.
 
"If you take the trailing twelve month [TTM] period from July 2007 to July 2008, Abu Dhabi International Airport has already handled over 8.2 million passengers in that period."

"If we apply the current growth rates to the whole of 2008, we are now well on course to welcome over nine million passengers through Abu Dhabi International Airport by the end of the calendar year," Vercelli added.

Clearly bolstering the continuing growth airport experienced in July was the increased frequencies and new destinations that, over the last 12 months, have been launched by Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, along with an ever increasing number of new airlines operating out of ADIA.

The airport’s Terminal 3 will be one such development that will cater to the very real and growing demand for travel through and from the UAE capital.

The additional five million passenger capacity terminal is currently undergoing a phased introduction with some of the key operations set to be up and running by the end of the year.

Terminal 3 will bring the total passenger capacity at the airport to over 12 million and will act as an intermediate facility until the main centre-piece of the new airport – the ‘Midfield Terminal’ – comes online in around four years time. The Midfield Terminal’s operational capacity when opening will be 20 million passengers per year.    

ADAC also listed the top five most popular city destinations for Abu Dhabi travellers in July. Doha (first) topped the list followed by Bangkok, Cairo, London, and Manama.

"These five cities accounted for 17.8 per cent of total traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport in the month of July," Vercelli said.-TradeArabia News Service