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Double-digit Growth for Abu Dhabi Airport

The airport traffic figures for January 2009 released by Abu Dhabi Airport Company (ADAC) said the harsh the British winter has failed to halt attraction of Abu Dhabi as the UK climbs to third most popular country destination from the airport, after India and Pakistan.

The airport had passed a significant milestone by handling over nine million passengers in 2008 (an airport record), having exceeded conservative expectations over the previous two years. This 30-plus per cent growth is an unparalleled rate, a release from ADAC said.

“We have said all along that, even during buoyant market conditions, growth rates such as we have seen [+30 per cent] over the last two years were not sustainable indefinitely. But we are pleased that, in light of the added challenge of the global economic slow down, we remain an airport of choice and have continued to realise double-digit growth,” the release said quoting Khalifa Al Mazrouei, Chairman and Managing Director of ADAC.

The trailing 12 month figures, however, pointed to growth rates that have been more familiar to Abu Dhabi International Airport over the last few years with a 27.8 per cent increase in traffic — 9.1 million passengers by the close of the month as against 7.1 million on January 31, 2008.

Cargo movement recovered for January from a slight decline in the previous month by posting a 2.0 per cent increase on last year’s tonnage; aircraft movements were also up by 2.8 per cent. TTM figures for both cargo and aircraft movements showed a respective 11.2 and 11.7 per cent increase.

ADAC also released data highlighting the top five most popular city destinations traveled to and from Abu Dhabi, in January, and as per the list Doha was on the top if the list followed by London, Cairo, Bangkok and Bahrain. These destinations accounted for 16.9 per cent of all traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport in January, the release said.

· ramavarman@khaleejtimes.ae