Rising Abu Dhabi air passengers mean higher hotel occupancies

Passengers’ traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport was up 27.4 per cent in May, at the time hotels’ occupancy reached 78 per cent in the city, an 8 per cent increase compared to a year ago.

Passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport jumped by a record 27.4 per cent in May. Silvia Razgova / The National

Increasing passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International Airport are translating into improving occupancy rates at the capital's hotels.

Passenger traffic at the airport jumped by a record 27.4 per cent in May even as hotel occupancy in the city rose by 8 per cent from a year ago to reach 78 per cent.

Some 1.63 million passengers passed through the airport in May compared with 1.28 million a year ago, airport data showed.

“New codeshare partnerships between Etihad [Airways] and various airlines have positively impacted our traffic numbers,” said Ahmad Al Haddabi, the chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airports.

Meanwhile, during the first five months of the year, about 1.43 million tourists stayed in the emirate’s hotels, marking a 30 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. The January-to-May guest count translated into 4.37 million hotel nights, up 22 per cent year-on-year, figures from the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority showed.

The hotel industry’s revenue rose 14 per cent to Dh2.67 billion, with food and beverage income up 12 per cent year-on-year to more than Dh1 billion.

Manila was the most popular route in May – boosted by an increase in Philippine Airlines' operations. Next was Doha, because of an increase in Etihad flights to Qatar, followed by Bangkok, London and Mumbai – on the back of Etihad and Jet Airways' double daily flights to India's financial capital. Etihad owns a 24 per cent stake in Jet.

“Etihad will soon deploy its additional 777-200LRs recently acquired from Air India and will also take delivery of its first A380 and 787-9s this year – this rapid organic expansion coupled with its strategic stakes in other operators is swelling passenger traffic and Abu Dhabi airport is a prime beneficiary of this growth,” said Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research.

“Abu Dhabi airport’s sharp rise in traffic demonstrates the continued demand for travel through the UAE and that Etihad’s expansion is pulling in traffic to the capital in the same way that Emirates is doing in Dubai.

“With a 19 per cent rise in traffic year to date over the same period last year, the emphasis on getting the new Midfield Terminal ready on time will become ever more important,” Mr Ahmad added.

Separately, the average length of stay at hotels in Abu Dhabi fell 6 per cent to just over three nights, while the average room rate decreasing 4 per cent to Dh448.

“Overall, the performance makes for good reading, though there are two areas of concern the average-length-of-stay and the average room rate, both of which have dipped from 2013,” said Jasem Al Darmaki, the deputy director general at TCA Abu Dhabi.

Mr Al Darmaki said that the average room rate now represents “an exceptional consumer value”, adding that the TCA will be promoting the cheaper fare across marketing and communications channels.

In terms of international guests, Indian visitors checking into Abu Dhabi hotels accounted for the highest number, followed by the British, Germans and Chinese.Russians stayed the longest, averaging 6.22 nights each in the emirate, according to the TCA.

“We are poised to achieve our 2014 guest arrivals target of 3.2 million and anticipate increased business from Australia and Italy with Etihad Airways’ planned launch, this July, of new routes to Perth and Rome,” said Mr Al Darmaki.

Etihad will fly to Rome and Perth from July 15.

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