Passenger traffic up 21.1% in Q1 2015 at Abu Dhabi International Airport

In the first quarter of 2015, a total of 5,521,110 passengers used Abu Dhabi International Airport, compared with 4,560,169 passengers in Q1 2014, a record performance. Aircraft movements rose to 41,585, representing 16% growth compared with 35,844 movements logged in Q1 2014. Cargo activity increased to 200,127 tonnes handled at the three terminals, a 9.2% increase when compared to Q1 2014. The published report indicated that the month of March 2015 has seen a similar 21.1% increase in passenger numbers compared to March 2014, registering 1,917,939 passengers passing through the airport during the month.

Ahmad Al Haddabi, chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “With more than 5 million passengers passing through Abu Dhabi International Airport during the first quarter, the statistics continue to show that Abu Dhabi is rapidly becoming a major global transportation hub. Only last month, we saw Alitalia and South African Airways add daily services between Abu Dhabi and Venice and Johannesburg while Jet Airways resumed daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Abu Dhabi Airports has made great progress in matching the growth in passenger traffic with a carefully implemented programme to expand capacity.  During Q1, we opened the newly expanded facilities at Terminal 1 and we continue to push ahead with a broader capacity enhancement programme to ensure that passengers using Abu Dhabi International Airport will always enjoy a world class experience.”

The top five routes from Abu Dhabi International Airport during March were Bangkok, Manila, London Heathrow, Doha and Jeddah.
Within the next five years, over 40 million passengers are expected to use Abu Dhabi International Airport as their origin, destination or transit point for international and domestic flights. The Midfield Terminal Building (MTB), Abu Dhabi Airports’ iconic expansion project, is being constructed to handle increasing passenger traffic. The project features passenger and cargo facilities, duty free shops and restaurants for an initial capacity of 30 million passengers per year.