How Abu Dhabi Airport Prepares for 45 Million Passengers

Abu Dhabi Airport has planned major IT infrastructure and technology upgrades to accommodate its growth plans, increasing to a passenger capacity of 45 million by 2017.

“Abu Dhabi International Airport continues to experience double-digit passenger growth and therefore we are investing in new airport facilities that will allow us to accommodate the forecast future increase in passengers,” explains Eng. Ahmad Al Haddabi, Chief Operations Officer, Abu Dhabi Airports.

The airport served 20 million passengers in 2014, but is following the example of other international hubs, such as Singapore Changi Airport, by building infrastructure to support dramatic growth ahead of demand.

Under a five-year contract with aviation technology company, SITA, the airport will install a new Airport Management solution which provides real-time information on operations across all of the airport’s facilities.

Abu Dhabi will also install SITA’s AirportConnect Open system—which lets airlines share check-in areas, kiosks and boarding areas, while keeping their own data separate from competitors—and SITA’s Bag Manager system which allows baggage tracking in real-time.

New automated boarding gates and airport information displays will be installed to help speed up the passenger journey and simplify way-finding at the airport.