32% passenger growth at Abu Dhabi airport

GROWTH CONTINUES: Abu Dhabi Airport's passenger numbers have grown by 32 percent so far this year, compared to 2007. (Supplied)

Abu Dhabi International Airport is continuing to buck the global downward trend in air traffic as latest figures and the first 10 months of the year showed a passenger growth of 32.8 per cent.

At current rates, the UAE capital’s main aviation hub remains on course to approach the nine million passengers a year milestone by the end of 2008, Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) said.

Passenger figures for October, versus the same month in 2007, showed similar growth with an increase of 32 per cent with aircraft movements up 7.5 per cent and cargo posting a similar 7.9 percent increase.

Year-to-date (YTD) figures for aircraft movements and cargo fared better than the monthly rates registering 14.6 per cent and 14.3 per cent growth respectively.

A number of conferences and exhibitions held in Abu Dhabi and across the UAE were partially credited with supporting October’s passenger loads - the UK continued to attract strong growth (33.1 per cent) moving into third position with Pakistan becoming the second largest market served from the UAE capital, after India.

Rudy Vercelli, CEO of ADAC, said: “While we recognise that such high growth rates are not sustainable indefinitely and if we factor in the considerations surrounding an overall worldwide slowdown in traffic we must be pleased with the sustained growth we are seeing."

In related data, ADAC also released the top five most popular city destinations travelled to from Abu Dhabi in October 2008, which were: Doha, London, Bangkok, Cairo and Bahrain.

These five cities accounted for 17.8 percent of total traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport in the month of October.

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