São Paulo – The Abu Dhabi International Airport, in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, received 1,703,995 passengers in July, up 21.7% from July last year, according to information released last Monday (1st) by the airport’s administration.
“The figures were boosted by the Eid Al Fitr holiday as well as the summer holiday season,” said the chief operations officer for Abu Dhabi Airports, Ahmad Al Haddabi, in a press release. Eid Al Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic calendar month where Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. This year, the holiday took place in late July.
Another reason for the increase, according to Haddabi, was the launch of Etihad Airways flights to Yerevan, Armenia, and Perth, Australia. The airline is based at the Abu Dhabi Airport.
The busiest routes in July were those to London, in the United Kingdom, Doha, in Qatar, Manila, in the Philippines, Bangkok, in Thailand, and Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. These routes accounted for a combined 15% of traffic in the month. Etihad also flies daily to São Paulo, Brazil.
Aircraft traffic reached 13,188 in July, up 16.1% from July 2013. Cargo throughput stood at 67,456 tonnes, up 5.7%.
“Our challenge is to manage this growth whilst at the same time ensuring that standards of service, safety and security remain consistently high,” said Haddabi. The airport is undergoing expansion works to meet growing demand.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
