Dubai: Abu Dhabi International passenger numbers increased in May by 14.9 per cent compared to a year earlier, operator Abu Dhabi Airports said on Saturday.
More than 1.8 million passengers travelled through the airport that is home to Etihad Airways in May with a significant increase of passengers from Italy and the United States.
A total of 1,877,440 passengers passed through the airport compared to 1,633,700 in May 2014, according to an emailed statement.
This brings the total number of passengers to have used the airport this year to 9,263,497, a rise of 18.5 per cent compared to the first five months of 2014.
“May was an excellent month for us, and we continue to see strong growth across all key sectors with both passenger and cargo facilities running smoothly,” stated Ahmad Al Haddabi, Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports.
“The ability to handle increases in traffic on this scale, month after month, is a testament to the efforts and experience of our operations team, as well as a clear indication of our national carrier Etihad’s strong continued growth,” he said.
The launch of direct services by Italian national carrier Alitalia from Milan and Venice has seen the number of passengers from Italy increase by 166.5 per cent compared to May 2014 to over 50,000. Passenger growth from the US increased 49 per cent to more than 106,000 passengers.
The total number of aircraft landings and take-offs were 14,725, up 13.9 per cent. Cargo was up 9.8 per cent to 73,476 tonnes.
The top five destinations from Abu Dhabi International were Mumbai, Manila, London Heathrow, Doha and Bangkok, accounting for 16 per cent of all traffic.
