Abu Dhabi airport sees slight drop in October passenger traffic

The Abu Dhabi International Airport recorded passenger traffic of over 1.9 million in October, down marginally by 0.9 per cent compared to the same period last year.

In a statement, operator Abu Dhabi Airports confirmed that total passengers numbered 1,903,556 in October 2016.

London, Bangkok and Mumbai were the top three passenger destinations during the month.

Passenger traffic to and from Mumbai saw a 19 per cent year-on-year increase to reach 62,415.

The number of passengers travelling to Doha from the Abu Dhabi airport also rose by 8 per cent to 59,535 in October this year.

Aircraft movements during the month reached 14,763, up 1.3 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Airports also revealed that more than 20 million passengers have passed through the airport so far this year.

The total number of travellers between January 1 and October 31 reached 20,432,279 — an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to 19,393,074 during the same period in 2015.

However, aircraft movements during the first 10 months of the year dropped by 0.7 per cent to 143,310.

In terms of cargo, although volumes rose by 6.7 per cent year-on-year during the month of October to reach 73,649 metric tonnes, they fell by 4 per cent during the first 10 months of the year to 662,549 metric tonnes.

The Abu Dhabi airport is currently undergoing a multi-billion dollar re-development and expansion project designed to increase its overall capacity to more than 45 million passengers per year.

As part of this redevelopment, a second runway and a third terminal have been completed.

It is currently in the process of building its new Midfield Terminal Building, which will be the largest architectural structure in Abu Dhabi when complete.

Read more: Construction progressing on Abu Dhabi’s new Midfield Terminal

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