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Abu Dhabi Airport’s Passenger Traffic Up 27.4pc in November

ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi International Airport registered a growth of 27.4 per cent in passenger traffic in November over the comparable period, while year-to-date (YTD) growth remained strong at 32.3 per cent.

The UAE National Day and the Eid Al Adha holidays supported an increase in passenger loads over the November period and the increase in Hajj pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia, also contributed to the surge in passenger numbers.

During the Haj period, Abu Dhabi International Airport handled a total of 14,784 Haj pilgrims which increased passenger traffic to Saudi Arabia by 34.5 per cent.

Total passenger movement for the trailing twelve months (TTM) to the end of November, saw the airport handle 8,928,622 passengers.

Abu Dhabi Airport Company officials are also confident that during the January to December 2008 period, the airport remains on course to reach the nine million passengers per year milestone.

Cargo traffic at the Abu Dhabi International Airport continued to rise through 2008 posting a 14 per cent and 11.6 per cent growth for the YTD and the month of November respectively.

Aircraft movements saw similar growth rates with 14.4 per cent growth in the first 11 months and 11.8 per cent in November alone.

“The continued growth of the airport’s home airline Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, continues to be a significant driver in growing passenger traffic at the Abu Dhabi International as well as increasing our efforts to increase frequencies and routes with other airlines,” said Rudy Vercelli, CEO of ADAC.

“While we have welcomed six new airlines to Abu Dhabi airports in this calendar year alone, we are also working closely with existing partner airlines — most recently, Singapore Airlines has announced an increase to a daily service between Abu Dhabi and Singapore from March next year.”

Bangkok remained among top five most popular destinations travelled from/to Abu Dhabi in November 2008. Doha topped the top five city destinations of the month followed by London, Cairo, Bahrain and Bangkok.