Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi International Airport handled in excess of 2 million passengers in the month of April this year, representing a 5.6 per cent increase in airport traffic compared with April of 2016, which reached 1.9 million.

According to Abu Dhabi Airports total arrivals in April increased by 6.6 per cent to 1,050,520 and total departures increased by 5.8 per cent to 1,019,835.

Total transit passengers at the airport also went up by 6.1 per cent to reach 1,311,262.

Traffic to India, one of the airport’s main traffic drivers representing 18 per cent of the total passengers has shown an increase of 1.9 per cent in April this year compared to April 2016.

Saudi Arabia has become the number two destination, growing sharply by 17.4 per cent due to significant increase in traffic to Riyadh and Jeddah during the Umrah season.

UK was the third most popular destination, growing by 12 per cent in April this year compared to the same month last year.

The number of passengers travelling to Australia grew significantly, increasing by 28 per cent thanks to Etihad’s double daily flight to Sydney, Abu Dhabi Airports said.

Among the other top destinations which recorded significant increase in passenger numbers include London with 16 per cent, followed by Bangkok, with 11 per cent, Doha by 4 per cent, followed by Jeddah 12 per cent, and Mumbai by 4 per cent.

The top five destinations recorded total passenger of 366,076 representing 18 per cent of the airport total passengers.

There were 13,546 aircraft movements in April this year compared to 14,074 aircraft movements during the same month last year, a drop of 3.8 per cent. Cargo handled at the airport also dropped by 14.4 per cent with 54,382 metric tonnes of cargo in April this year compared to 63,500 metric tonnes during the same period last year.