Abu Dhabi International Airport passenger traffic up 5.1% in 2016

Passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport increased 5.1 per cent last year, Abu Dhabi Airports has announced.

The emirate’s main aviation hub registered 24,482,119 passengers using the airport as their point of departure, arrival or transit in 2016 from 23,286,632 in 2015.

The followed an 11.4 increase in traffic from the UK and a 13.3 per cent increase in traffic from India.

Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad accounted for 76 per cent of the airport’s traffic, or more than 18.6 million passengers, and there was a 12.6 per cent increase in traffic through Terminal 3 to around 15 million passengers.

“The figures released today reveal consistent growth in passenger traffic, demonstrating that Abu Dhabi continues to expand as a global hub processing more passengers than ever before,” said Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports.

During the year, the airport said it reduced processing time by 70 per cent through its new smart travel system.

Traffic for December stood at 2,189,633, an increase of 3.7 per cent.

Local rival Dubai International also released its passenger numbers this week showing a 7.2 per cent increase in traffic.

Read: Dubai airport welcomes 83.6m passengers in 2016, remains world’s busiest int’l