Million a month use Abu Dhabi airport

Abu Dhabi International Airport expects to handle 12 million travellers this year and says 1 million passengers a month will become the norm. James Bennett, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac), made the prediction as the hub recorded the fourth consecutive month of more than 1 million passengers. "Going forward, we'll see more and more months of over a million," Mr Bennett said. "Perhaps next year we'll even be into that phase where we never really drop below a million passengers a month." Abu Dhabi airport reported a total of 1.06 million travellers in October, a 17.2 per cent increase on the same month last year. The airport first crossed the 1 million passenger mark in July last year, but achieving this number for four months in a row was "a new traffic record", Adac said. The increase was attributed to the arrival of airlines such as Cathay Pacific, V Australia, and Czech Airlines, along with increased frequencies and new destinations launched by existing carriers. Mr Bennett said Etihad Airways had "continued to receive aircraft and add frequencies in certain markets". While passenger numbers were up by 17 per cent in October, aircraft movements increased by only 1 per cent. This was because more seats were filled on planes, Mr Bennett said. "What we're seeing is an increase in the load factors on the flights, which is the number of seats occupied," he said. "The airlines have the opportunity to make more profit." He added that the airport expects to handle a total of 12 million passengers this year. "We haven't seen the numbers yet for November, but we think it was equally strong. And so far in December we've seen some fairly strong numbers," said Mr Bennett. "We will probably see at least 13 million next year," he added. Adac last month announced work on the long-delayed Midfield Terminal building would go ahead next year. The building is planned to be capable of handling up to 30 million passengers a year when it opens in 2017. "By the time the new terminal is operational, we anticipate our passenger numbers would be in the upper teens, like 16 to 17 or so million passengers - maybe a little higher than that," said Mr Bennett. Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at the consultancy StrategicAero Research, said that Abu Dhabi's traffic figures had "exceeded many people's expectations". "It's likely that this trend … is going to continue for a very long time indeed," said Mr Ahmad. He added that the growth of Etihad as well as congestion at Dubai airport - were factors behind the boom in passengers at Abu Dhabi International. "There are those passengers that want to travel to and through the UAE without going to Dubai International, which is an awful lot busier and often has delays given the amount of traffic present there," said Mr Ahmad. Traffic is also set to rise at Dubai International Airport, where the annual capacity is being raised from 60 million passengers to 90 million by 2018. Passenger services are also expected to commence at Dubai's new facility, Al Maktoum International Airport.