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Abu Dhabi International Airport Set to Grow More than 8 Per Cent in 2010

ABU DHABI — Abu Dhabi international airport hopes to achieve over eight per cent growth in passenger traffic in 2010, carrying forward the healthy growth figures achieved in the just concluded year.

“We continued to grow in 2009. The final traffic figures for the year are being finalised and would be officially released later this week. But I can tell you we have been lucky to be one of the few airports in the world to record positive growth rate in 2009. Only the airports in the Middle East were able to achieve growth in last year, and we are part of the Middle East trend,” Ahmed Mohammed Al Haddabi, Vice-President—Airport Operations of the Abu Dhabi Airport Company, or 
ADAC, said.

“We should be able to achieve a passenger traffic of 10 million this year,” Al Haddabi told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Press conference held to announce the selection of Abu Dhabi as the location for holding ‘Routes – The World Route Development Forum’ in 2012.

The airport had recorded a year on year increase of 8.1 per cent in passenger traffic for the first six months of 2009 when compared to the same period in the previous year. The actual details of the performance of the airport in the second half of 2009 will be known when the annual traffic figures are released later this week.

The ADAC official said that four or five new airlines are likely to operate from Abu Dhabi this year. Currently, 45 international airlines are operating from the airport to 80 destinations. The number of destinations from Abu Dhabi is also likely to increase significantly this year. The existing airlines may increase the frequencies and destinations. “It is the prerogative of the airline to announce the new destinations, and we can only confirm those announcements,’’ he said.

The airport currently has a capacity to handle 12 million passengers and new capacities will be added in accordance with the growth in the flow of passengers to optimal level, “It is difficult to say when will be able to achieve the optimal utilisation of the existing capacities, because it is dependent up on the airlines and the overall improvement of the aviation markets,” Al Haddabi said.

The work on the midfield terminal was progressing well and it will be commissioned in 2015 as scheduled

ADAC is also optimistic on the growth levels in other areas of business like duty free shops just like the last year, he said. The World Route Development Forum is considered to be major event in the aviation industry, and has partnerships with the world’s leading air transport associations, such as IATA and ICAO.

The 18^th edition of the forum which will be held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from September 30 to October 3, 2012, is expected to draw the attendance of 3,500-4,000 decision-making delegates in the aviation industry.

· ramavarman@khaleejtimes.com