Passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi airport up 17% on the year

Passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International Airport rose ­by 17.2 per cent in 2015, with more than 23 million travellers passing through its terminals during the past year.

Much of the increase was thanks to the concurrent growth of Etihad Airways which carried 17.4 million passengers in 2015, up 18.4 per cent on the previous year.

The airline was responsible for nearly three-quarters [more than 74 per cent] of traffic through Abu Dhabi during the year.

The airport operator said that monthly traffic through its terminals hit 2 million for the first time in July, with the milestone also surpassed in August, September and December.

Traffic hit its peak in August, with more than 2.5 million passengers traveling through the capital, followed by 2.1 million in December.

“To cross the 2 million mark for the first time in our history for four months of the year, is a testament to the airport’s ability to connect the world,” said Abu Dhabi Airport’s chief operations officer Ahmad Al Haddabi.

India, the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the US represented the strongest five routes for travellers to and from Abu Dhabi, together accounting for more than 9 million passengers.

The airport handled 827,456 tonnes of cargo, a 3.8 per cent increase on 2014 figures.