Abu Dhabi Airports Q3 Passengers Rise 1.4% to 8.61 Million as Cargo Climbs 11.4%

Zayed International Airport, the main gateway, handled 8.45 million passengers in the quarter, up 1.2 per cent year on year. Over the rolling 12-month period, passenger numbers across the network reached 30.2 million.

Cargo grew much faster than passenger traffic. Total cargo across the network reached 225,298 tonnes, up 11.4 per cent from a year earlier, driven by a 28.2 per cent rise in cargo carried on dedicated freighters. Aircraft movements reached 49,427 at Zayed International and 69,615 across the network, increases of 0.7 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively.

Routes and Demand

The operator credited the growth to new partnerships with Condor, Royal Jordanian, Air India Express and Oman Air, and to new routes from its two base carriers, Etihad Airways and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi. Zayed International now serves 124 destinations, up from 112 a year earlier.

Daily throughput averaged 94,000 passengers during the summer peak and passed 100,000 several times in September. India was the largest origin market, with more than 671,000 passengers in September.

The emirate's second airport, recently renamed Tahnoun International Airport in honour of the late Sheikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, recorded a 17.1 per cent rise in aircraft movements and a 63 per cent increase in cargo volumes in the quarter.

Ahmed Juma Al Shamisi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Airports, said the results show "what is possible when an entire emirate operates with a single, synchronised vision." He added that the company is working with airline partners to remove friction and expand capacity.

Why It Matters

The figures show modest passenger growth but strong momentum in air freight. Abu Dhabi wants to become a larger trade hub, and cargo capacity is becoming more valuable as the Gulf competes for high-value shipments, from pharmaceuticals to data centre hardware. The operator said it remains on track to build on its record 2025. The quarter's passenger growth, at 1.4 per cent, was well below the double-digit cargo gains, so the network's recent strength is coming more from freight than from passengers.