More than 10 million passengers passed through Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH), during the first five months of the year, a 1.8 growth over the same period last year, a report said.

However the month of May posting a 2 per cent decline in traffic volume compared to the corresponding period in 2016, reported Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

According to data released by Abu Dhabi Airports, the majority of passenger traffic in the capital came from travellers flying to and from India, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. In terms of cities, the top two destinations were Mumbai followed by London.

Ahmed Juma Al Shamsi, acting chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, attributed the slight fall in May traffic to the fact that air carriers are operating their direct flights to and from the emirate without counting transit passengers, which means, he said, that AUH is no longer mentioning any transit passengers in its records.

"No transit travellers were recorded during May while 12,559 transit passengers were registered during the corresponding period last year," he explained.

AUH is in full gear for the peak holiday season, he added, calling upon passengers to take advantage of the state-of-the-technology introduced recently, including smart services in order to cut wait times and streamline entry and exit procedures.