Abu Dhabi airport targets 14 million passengers by year-end

Abu Dhabi: Passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport is expected to hit 14 million by year-end, according to James Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), marking a almost 13 per cent increase from 12.4 million passengers in 2011.

“The primary driver is certainly Etihad and their continued delivery of aircraft and the partnerships they’ve been creating with the airlines,” Bennett said. “But also we’re saying stronger growth in the tourism business in Abu Dhabi and the economic development and that also drives additional traffic,” he added.

There are currently 53 airlines operating through Abu Dhabi Inernational Airport and which Bennett said is expected to increase as well.

Dan Cappell, Senior Vice President Commercial at ADAC, said that they are currently finalising the plans to update Terminal 3 within the retail offer. “We’ll change the retail offer. The brands that have been there have existed since 2009 when we opened Terminal 3; there are brands that have been hugely successful and there are brands which we can replace,” he said.

“We have one or two new exciting brands which will be coming in to Terminal 3 next year,” he said.

This is also expected to drive duty gree sales even further. For the first half of the year, Abu Dhabi Duty Free announced a 29 per cent increase in sales revenues of Dh380.2 million compared to the same period last year. Their year-end forecast is for sales over Dh770 million,

There are currently over 75 stores at the airport.

When asked about the Midfield Terminal Building, ADAC did not comment.

In June of this year, ADAC and TAV, CCC and Arabtec signed a Dh10.8 billion contract to construct the Midfield Terminal Building at Abu Dhabi International Airport. While work is expected to start in the third quarter of 2012, the 700,000 square metre terminal building is scheduled to be completed by 2017.