Abu Dhabi: The Dh10.8 billion Midfield Terminal Building (MTB) project at Abu Dhabi International Airport remains on schedule, the airport’s chief executive told Gulf News.

“A good illustration is that in the last three to four weeks the first arch has gone up. By February 24 the second will be up. So we’re on a very disciplined plan now of seeing the skyline of this part of Abu Dhabi changing forever,” Tony Douglas of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) said.

The 700,000 square metre site is being built by a joint venture between Turkish construction company TAV, Greek Consolidated Contractors Company and Arabtec.

Adac is targeting to open the new Midfield Terminal on July 17 2017, which will solely be used by Etihad Airways and its equity and codeshare partners, Douglas said.

Last year, the Midfield Terminal project completed the basement infrastructure for what is set to be the world’s largest baggage system. In 2014 development will speed up with the roof, the four piers, and the external façade and glazing will be complete.

“From the road for some people the building will look almost complete,” Douglas said.

The Midfield Terminal will take Abu Dhabi International’s current capacity from 17.5 million passengers a year up to 55 million. But Etihad’s growth largely driven through equity stake acquisition in recent months, means Adac still needs to invest in the existing terminals.

Douglas said that by the time the Midfield Terminal opens in 2017 the current terminals will be capable of handling around 23 million passengers a year.

Abu Dhabi International handled 16.5 million passengers in 2013. Douglas said he is expecting 18 million to travel through the airport this year.

“This year we will be doing a sizeable extension on transfer passenger screening, on the transfer baggage facility [and] we’ll be introducing nine remote stands for wide body aircraft,” Douglas said.

 

Etihad’s growth beyond 2030

But with Etihad’s rapid expansion, which included huge aircraft orders at last year’s Dubai Airshow, it is likely that an annual capacity of 55 million will be exceeded within a decade, Douglas said.

“If everything is to stay the same, then 55 million gets you to 2030,” he said.

However, it is unlikely Etihad will slow down. Just this past week Etihad announced that talks to take an equity stake in struggling Italian carrier Alitalia are progressing. In an effort to drum out a deal the talks are now in a 30-day non-stop negotiation period.

Etihad has also recently announced codeshare agreements with European carriers, airbaltic and Air Europe and with United States carrier JetBlue. In the past months it has completed deals to take minority stakes in India’s Jet Airways, Air Serbia and European regional airline, Darwin Airline.