Is this the world’s best airport?
Face recognition check-in, board direct from the lounge, no queues... Abu Dhabi has created a futuristic masterpiece
THIS is an airport like no other — impressive enough to be a tourist attraction. So beautiful it’s worthy of a postcard. So spacious it should perhaps carry a trigger warning for agoraphobics.
Which makes being a passenger in Abu Dhabi’s new Zayed International Airport — comprising one single Terminal A — surreal. There’s no hassle, no jostling and no general sense of despair.
I feel like I’ve entered a utopian futurescape.
NO EXPENSE SPARED
TERMINAL A cost a cool $3 billion (€2.3 billion) to build and opened in November to replace the old terminals 1, 2 and 3.
It had been a long time coming, with the contracts for construction signed off in 2012 and the grand unveiling originally earmarked for 2017. Now, it’s the home hub of the UAE’s national airline, Etihad, with its name changing this year from Abu Dhabi International Airport to Zayed International Airport, after the UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
FUTURISTIC DESIGN
THE hub has been designed by the US architecture firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), which was behind New York’s Hudson Yards complex and Atlantis The Royal hotel in Dubai. Within seconds of reaching the check-in desks, I conclude that with Terminal A the firm has come up with a near-perfect concept. All airports should be like this.
The cavernous space by the entrance is dominated by an installation called Sana AlNour — a huge, vase-like structure consisting of 1,632 curved translucent glass panels that stands 22m tall and 17m wide.
Not just pretty on the eye, Sana Al-Nour also facilitates energy-saving airflow for the entire termina, allowing for cool air to pass through the front and top of it, while heat rises through the middle.
I point my camera at the arching, operatic support pillars that reach up into the roof. It’s little wonder, I muse, that director Christopher McQuarrie chose Terminal A to shoot some of the dramatic opening scenes for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.
HASSLE-FREE SECURITY
FORGET queuing — especially if you take advantage of the airport’s groundbreaking biometric system.
Terminal A is the only airport in the world where passengers can navigate through immigration and the checkin and boarding process without the need for physical documents, thanks to biometric cameras placed at strategic points.
You still need to have your passport and other documents with you, but the use of facial recognition and extra checks is greatly reduced, making for an even more seamless process. I haven’t registered for the ‘facial recognition journey’, but I practically float through to departures nevertheless.
Security is a leap forward, too. All my liquids stay in my bag for the cutting-edge Xray machine, overseen by shockingly polite staff, though my laptop has to be removed.
AIRSIDE SHOPPING
ONCE through security, you enter a gleaming shoppers’ paradise that covers 35,000 square metres.
Get ready to max out your credit card, because several major designer brands have set up shop, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes and Ferragamo.
Budget buys are also available. There’s a Costa Coffee, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, McDonald’s, KFC, Jones the Grocer, Camden Food Co, Meat District and a Todd English restaurant. What strikes me, as I wander hither and thither, is the tranquillity of it all.
ACRES OF SPACE
THE airport can handle 45 million passengers annually, 11,000 per hour and has stands for 79 aircraft (65 of which are connected to the building). Terminal A covers 742,000 square metres and has walkways almost big enough for a Dreamliner to trundle through. If you mislay a loved one, there’s no need to worry — just WhatsApp them using the airport’s fast, free and passwordless wi-fi.
HEADING FOR THE GATE
THE airport claims a kerb-to-gate time of 12 minutes if you’re using the biometric recognition system and you have a convenient departure gate. Arriving two hours before your flight shouldn’t be necessary.
The gates are arranged along four tentacle-like arms that stretch out from a central hub to form an X shape. Each tentacle is themed differently, representing Abu Dhabi’s natural landscapes of desert, sea, city and oasis.
LUXURIOUS LOUNGES
MY DEPARTURE experience finishes in the worldclass Etihad lounge — three floors of wanton (complimentary) luxury for business, first-class and tier-status economy passengers.
There is a live cooking station serving local and international dishes, a bar worthy of a five-star hotel, 18 shower suites, games rooms for adults and children, and more modish seating than you can shake a neck pillow at.
I am given a sneak peek at the first-class area, which features semi-cocooned private seating areas shielded by elegant curtains.
Some of the gates connect to the lounge, which faces the runway, with huge windows affording guests magnificent views of manoeuvring planes — including A380 superjumbos.
BOARDING THE PLANE
IF YOU’RE an Etihad lounge user and your flight is departing from one of the gates connected to it, you can board directly.
Mine is. And it only takes a couple of minutes to go from bar to air bridge, with beaming staff on hand to make sure I don’t take a wrong turn and end up in a shower suite by accident.
As my plane backs away from the airport, I admire the mesmerising wavy rooftop of the building, which mirrors the UAE’s undulating dunes.
THE VERDICT?
SINGAPORE’S Changi Airport was named the world’s best at the 2023 Skytrax World Airport Awards — the so-called ‘Oscars of the airport industry’.
It was the 12th time it had snared the gong, unsurprising given it has the world’s highest indoor waterfall and an ‘enchanted garden’.
But that was before Zayed International Airport’s Terminal A burst on to the scene. I would eat my boarding pass if this sensational project doesn’t secure the crown next year.