ABU DHABI: Passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport increased by 24.8 per cent in August as nearly 1.92 million passengers passed through the airport during the month, Abu Dhabi Airports announced on Wednesday. The number of passengers marks an increase from the 1.54 million who passed through in the same month last year.
Aircraft movement during the month was also on the rise, reaching 13,395 movements, representing a 15.4 per cent increase over the 11,608 movements in August 2013. Meanwhile, cargo activity increased to 66,215 tonnes — a 9.9 per cent increase in comparison to August 2013.
The rise in passenger numbers brings the total of the year so far to over 13.1 million passengers, marking a 20.5 per cent rise from the 10.9 million passengers that passed through the airport in the same eight months last year.
Ahmad Al Haddabi, chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airport, attributed the rise in passenger numbers to the fact that many residents were flying back to the emirate after holidays in time for the new school term.
“Additionally, Abu Dhabi is increasingly being seen a preferred tourism and business destination as well as one of the fastest growing aviation hubs in the region, with access to over 90 destinations around the world,” he said.
Al Haddabi added, “We constantly work hard on enhancing our services through various initiatives including the capacity enhancing programme, which aims to develop the airport’s current facilities to withstand the increasing number of passengers.”
In August 2014, the top five routes from Abu Dhabi International Airport were Bangkok, London, Doha, Manila, and Bahrain. The top five routes accounted for 15 per cent of all traffic.
Currently under way is the multibillion dollar expansion of the airport to increase the overall capacity to over 40 million passengers per year. As part of the expansion, a second runway, and a third terminal have been completed.
