Abu Dhabi International Airport witnessed a record breaking month in August 2015 when more than two million passengers passed through the airport in a single month
A total of 2,254,809 passengers were seen through the airport last month, up 17.4 per cent compared to the 1,920,934 passengers in August 2014, operator Abu Dhabi Airports said in a statement.
According to the authorities, it is the highest number of passengers to have used the airport in its history. In June too, passenger numbers exceeded two million for the first time in a single month when 2,100,929 were seen through the airport.
Ahmad Al Haddabi, chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airport, stated that passenger numbers are upto 70,000 a day in the peak travel season. He said the August increase was largely due to UAE residents returning home ahead of the start of the academic school and a growing number of business and leisure visitors to Abu Dhab.
The top five destinations in August were London, Bangkok, Doha, Manila and Mumbai ? accounting for 15 per cent of all traffic, Abu Dhabi Airports said.
August figures continue an upwards trend at Abu Dhabi International where home carrier Etihad Airways is rapidly expanding. The airline is increasing capacity on existing routes this year as it take delivery of new Airbus A380s and Boeing Dreamliner 787s and has launched flights to new destinations Kolkata, Madrid, Entebbe, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Algiers.
The number of aircraft landings and take offs in August were 15,277, increasing 14.1 per cent compared to a year ago. The amount of cargo handled at the airport was 70,857 metric tonnes, up seven per cent. This year, passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International are up 18 per cent to 15.4mn as of 31 August 31 2015 from 13.1mn a year ago.
