Abu Dhabi’s Midfield Terminal on track
abu dhabi — The midfield Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport is on track for 2019 opening and will be able to simultaneously handle 141 aircarft compared to 62 at present, a top official says.
Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports, said the budget allocated for the Midfield Terminal has already exceeded Dh19.1 billion while a budget of Dh38 billion has been allocated for the expansion and development of Abu Dhabi’s aviation sector.
“The Abu Dhabi Airports are currently establishing three free zones at the airports of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Bateen. This is expected to generate more than Dh1 billion revenues annually,” Al Khoori said in an interview with Emirates News Agency (Wam).
He said the Abu Dhabi Airports is also considering a plan to allow cargo companies and low-cost airlines to operate from Al Ain airport. Upon completion, he said the new airport facility complex will be able to receive over 30 million travellers every year. The luggage sort-out and handling system at the new airport building shall be one of the best and fastest baggage handling system in the world, as it will be dealing with 19,000 bags per an hour.
“About 70.8 per cent of the construction works at the new airport complex have been completed,” he said. Speaking about smart travel, Al Khoori said smart gates have made significant contribution in passenger handling by 70 per cent reducing the travel process. They helped raise the efficiency while processing the travel documents, and helped save about 70 per cent of the labour force at the airport.
Since its launch in March 2016, he said as many as 2.5 million inbound and outbound travellers used the smart gates at Abu Dhabi airport. He said approximately 60,000 travellers use the airport every day with 475 flights daily.
Talking about the new ways to boost the housing capacity of the airports to meet the growing number of travellers, Al Khouri said the Abu Dhabi Airport is continuously watching its capacity and capabilities to handle travellers at the airport. In the past years, the Abu Dhabi airports company initiated expansion projects at the two terminals 1 and 3 of the airport.
“We are looking new ways to develop operational management of the airport as a major solution to raise its competence to deal with the growing traffic of travellers,” he said. Speaking about the development of the other airports in the emirate, Al Khoori said that the Abu Dhabi Airports is regularly watching closely the performance of its airports such as Al Ain Airport, Al Bateen Private Aviation airport, Sir Bani Yas Island airport and Dalama Island airport.
“Over 2.2 million travellers, be arriving, departing and on transit, used the Abu Dhabi airport in January 2017,” he said.
Speaking about the Emiratisation rate at the Abu Dhabi Airports company, he said that it has now reached 50.9 per cent with 614 Emirati nationals employed in technical and administrative sections.“The Emiratisation rate came to 84 per cent at the executive management department,” Al Khoori concluded.