August 2015 was another record breaking month for Abu Dhabi International when more than 2 million passengers passed through the airport in a single month for only the second time ever.

A total of 2,254,809 passengers were seen through Abu Dhabi International in August, up 17.4 per cent compared to the 1,920,934 passengers in August 2014, operator Abu Dhabi Airports said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

It is the highest number of passengers to have used the airport in its history. A month earlier in June, passenger numbers exceed 2 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 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 7 per cent. This bucked the global trend in July when demand was down 0.6 per cent but up with regional growth where demand expanded by 10.8 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association.

This year, passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International are up 18 per cent to 15,467,315 as of August 31, 2015 from 13,106,673. a year ago.

We accept Guest Posts

Download the Dubai City Guide iPhone mobile app

DubaiCityGuide.com is owned and managed by Cyber Gear