Abu Dhabi International Airport recorded a 20 per cent jump in passenger numbers last year, cementing the capital’s status as an emerging global aviation hub.
The airport reported about 20 million inbound, outbound and transfer passengers.
It handled 154,821 traffic movements, which is one take-off or landing, up 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The volume of cargo likewise rose 12.8 per cent, reaching 797,069 million tonnes.
Etihad Airways added 10 new destinations last year, including Phuket, San Francisco and Dallas, as traffic also grew through partners such as Jet Airways.
Greece’s Aegean Airlines and Austria’s Niki also began flying to the capital.
The jump in traffic figures underscores the high demand for travel to and through the UAE and highlights the sustainable coexistence of large and growing hubs in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, according to Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research.
“Both have the capacity, footprint and capabilities to draw in passengers from around the globe and effectively cast aside any ill-thought notion that there is not enough traffic to be shared between both airports,” he said.
In the year to the final week of December, Dubai International Airport handled 68.9 million passengers, according to the trade group Airports Council International.
Last month, traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport rose 22 per cent over the same period in 2013, and Mr Ahmad expects the growth rate to continue this year. He said the airport should handle between 24 million to 25 million passengers in 2015.
The top five destinations from Abu Dhabi were India, Germany, United Kingdom, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Last month, the airport reopened its renovated southern runway as it gears up to open its new midfield terminal in the summer of 2017.
“The Midfield Terminal complex holds the key for Etihad to truly unlock its expansion plans” as it takes delivery of new widebody jets, Mr Ahmad said.
Once the new terminal opens, the two runways will have an annual combined capacity of 500,000 aircraft movements, nearly one take-off or landing per minute. If that capacity is reached, Abu Dhabi would be home to one of the busiest two-runway airports in the world.
Travel companies are betting big on the potential of Abu Dhabi. Next month, an interactive video-based app called travall will launch in the capital city, highlighting different tourist destinations.
Meanwhile, Big Bus, which operates 10 buses in the capital, expects to grow the number of tourists it carries by four per cent this year.
“As the capital grows, we will continue to increase our fleet size this year,” said Mike Lees, the general manager of Big Bus Tours in the Middle East.
Last year, it carried 40,000 tourists in Abu Dhabi, up from 38,000 from the year before.
“We are also seeing people spending longer than a day in Abu Dhabi and the two-day ticket of Big Bus is popular,” he said.
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