Abu Dhabi Airports has reported a 15.8 percent increase in cargo volume handled in the first quarter of 2014 at Abu Dhabi International Airport, as compared to Q1 2013. Cargo activity rose to 183,344 tonnes from 158,369 tonnes handled at its three terminals. In March this year the airport handled 68,328 tonnes of cargo as compared to 59,474 tonnes in March last year giving a 14.9 percent increase. The airport’s passenger statistics showed that in the first quarter of 2014, a total of 4,560,169 passengers used Abu Dhabi International Airport, a 15.1 percent increase over Q1 2013 (3,963,458 passengers). Aircraft movements rose to 35,844 in Q1 2014, representing 11.8 percent growth compared with 32,062 movements logged in Q1 2013. The published report indicated that the month of March 2014 has seen in parallel a 15.2 percent increase in passenger numbers compared to March 2013, to register 1,584,022 passengers passing through the airport during the month. “It is clear that businesses and tourists alike increasingly see Abu Dhabi both as a destination of choice and as a logical transit point on longer journeys. This in turn is further evidence of the airport’s rapidly growing status as a major global transportation hub, and shows why our capacity enhancement programme remains a critical and complex initiative to enable passengers to have the best possible travel experience,” said Ahmad Al Haddabi, Chief Operations Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports. The top five routes from Abu Dhabi International Airport during March were Manila, Bangkok Jeddah, Doha, and London Heathrow. Abu Dhabi Airports is a public joint-stock company wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi Government. Within the next few years, over 30 million passengers are expected to use Abu Dhabi International Airport as their origin, destination or transit point for international and domestic flights. The Midfield Terminal Complex (MTC), Abu Dhabi Airports’ iconic expansion project, is being constructed to handle increasing passenger traffic. The project features a full terminal building, passenger and cargo facilities, duty free shops and restaurants for an initial capacity of 30 million passengers per year. Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) is positioning itself as the hub for another fast-growing belly and freighter carrier in the shape of Etihad Airways. Tony Douglas, a former CEO of London Heathrow and known in the Middle East for opening Khalifa seaport on time and within the budget, a rare feature for most of the infrastructure projects anywhere in the world, has been heading the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), which runs AUH. It is believed that with Douglas on operational and strategic control it is increasingly looking like Khalifa seaport and the adjacent, integrated Kizad trade zone are being positioned to rival Dubai’s Jebel Ali port and logistics complex. Therefore, industry observers of Middle East are looking very closely whether a similarly ambitious freight hub might arise from the desert around AUH, and whether it will be linked to Khalifa/Kizad in a way that challenges DP World and Dubai Airports for sea-air cargo.n