Abu Dhabi Airport passenger numbers up 0.7% in first half of 2017

Monday, Aug 07, 2017

Dubai: Abu Dhabi International Airport recorded a marginal increase in passengers in the first six months of 2017.

The airport said on Monday it handled 11,928,609 passengers between January and June 2017, compared to 11,848,359 during the same period last year, registering an increase of 0.7 per cent.

It added that 1,763,103 passengers used the airport during the month of June alone, registering a 5.3 per cent drop in traffic compared to June 2016.

“[For June] traffic is down slightly. Some flights in and out of the UAE have been halted in the last month due to regional events, plus carriers are now operating their flights point to point only [from Abu Dhabi and to Abu Dhabi] with no transit operations. June is also a quieter period as many people tend to travel in July and August, which are traditionally some of our busier months falling during the summer holiday and travel season,” Ahmad Al Shamsi, Acting Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said in a statement.

The top five destinations from Abu Dhabi in June were London, Mumbai, Delhi, Jeddah and Manila. Traffic to London increased by 6 per cent and traffic to Delhi increase by 11 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The airport’s Terminal 3 handled 75 per cent of all passengers in June, with 81 per cent of all passengers this month being on Etihad flights, according to the airport statement.

Aircraft movements and cargo were also down this year, with Abu Dhabi registering 81,963 movements between January and June, a drop of 3 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. The first half of the year also saw Abu Dhabi Airport recording 368,372 metric tonnes of cargo, down by 5.3 per cent compared to the first half of 2016, when the airport registered 389,191 metric tonnes.

Staff Report