Abu Dhabi Airport sees 7.3% rise in passengers

Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) released its full year traffic figures for Abu Dhabi International Airport yesterday, with passenger numbers showing a growth of 7.3 per cent throughout 2009, reaching 9.7 million for the year.

Abu Dhabi International Airport is one of the few aviation hubs in the world to have achieved a healthy growth, while it has considerably outperformed the negative global average (three per cent).

Cargo traffic also demonstrated a robust increase of seven per cent, while total flights amounted to 102,118, up 9.6 per cent from last year.

In 2009, Abu Dhabi International Airport offered direct scheduled services to 80 destinations in 46 countries and also welcomed eight new airlines. Etihad continued to be the key contributor to the airport's growth introducing new routes and additional frequencies.

During the past year a total of 14 new destinations were added to Adac's network. In terms of the most popular city destinations out of Abu Dhabi for 2009, London (Heathrow) was number one, followed by Bangkok, Doha, Bahrain and Cairo.

Khalifa Al Mazrouei, Chairman of Adac said: "Despite the adverse global economic climate and the consolidation in the aviation industry during 2009, Abu Dhabi International has proven to be a resilient airport operation, with solid growth in both passenger and cargo traffic numbers demonstrating this.

"Adac will continue to work hard to grow its business in cooperation with its key customers and stakeholders. The management and staff appreciates all its partners for their contribution to another year of strong growth."

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