Abu Dhabi’s airport is currently one of the fastest growing in the world, and is expected to handle up to 40 million passengers once its USD$6.8 billion expansion plan is complete.
Ahmad Al Haddabi, Senior Vice-President of Airport Operations at Abu Dhabi Airports Company, told Gulf News that the airport can currently cater to 11 million passengers.
“The current facility including the developments that are going to be taking place from now and until 2015 will take us close to 18 million passengers. When the new midfield terminal is operative, we will be able to get up to 20 million passengers in 2016 and up to 40 million in the future.”
Terminal 1, currently under renovation, will be finish within the next few weeks and will include new lounges for First and Business Class as well as a new duty-free store and new food and beverage outlets.
He said Abu Dhabi Airports is also building 19 new hard stands, some of which are already finished and the rest are due to follow in the next few months. “We have increased the number of X-ray machines in Terminal 1, as well as the capacity of immigration by 30% for departing passengers and 40% for arrivals.”
At Terminal 3, work is on-going to cater to another five million people. Terminal 3 will be equipped to handle Airbus 380s. Terminal 3’s air- conditioned carpark, when finished, will be the few in the world that can cater to 3,000 cars.
Terminal 2 was refurbished three years ago and travellers can reach their aircrafts in no more than five minutes.
“Today we can accommodate over 11 million passengers. We are also achieving 7 to 8% growth in traffic. This is aligned with the overall UAE expected traffic, so we’re moving with the same growth,” Al Haddabi said. – Source: GulfNews.com
