Abu Dhabi International Airport traffic up 22.5% in April

The airport operator is implementing a capacity enhancement programme to cope with double-digit traffic growth ahead of its vast new Midfield Terminal becoming operational.

Passenger traffic continues to grow at Abu Dhabi Airport. Delores Johnson / The National
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Passenger traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport jumped 22.5 per cent in April as more than 1.62 million passengers passed through the hub.

Aircraft movement also rose more than 16 per cent to 12,420 in April, Abu Dhabi Airports said yesterday.

The increase comes as Etihad Airways adds routes this summer to destinations such as Los Angeles, Perth, Zurich and Belgrade.

“Abu Dhabi International Airport will also see more flights from its other airline partners this summer, especially in the Arabian Gulf region in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain,” said Ahmad Al Haddabi, the chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airports.

Abu Dhabi will benefit from more subcontinent traffic this year with extra flights to Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Rahim Yar Khan.

Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore will each get 14 extra flights a week from Abu Dhabi.

The airport operator is implementing a capacity enhancement programme to cope with double-digit traffic growth ahead of its vast new Midfield Terminal becoming operational.

Dubai International passenger numbers stood at 6.15 million in April, slightly down from March but up 13.7 per cent year-on-year. Passenger traffic rose 11.9 per cent to 24.5 million during the first four months of this year, up from 21.9 million in the same period last year.

The airport operator said the highest growth in passenger numbers was from Western Europe in April. That was followed by the Indian subcontinent, driven by growth in passenger traffic from the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Islamabad.

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