Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) is in talks with the Department of Transport to provide road and railway connectivity to the new Midfield Terminal project.
“Part of the connectivity of the Midfield Terminal includes a significant interchange with the Department of Transport to link [the terminal] to the main highway,” said Tony Douglas, the chief executive of Adac.
Adac is also planning to provision space for a light rail or metro, once the project is ready.
“The metro is part of a broader Abu Dhabi transport plan. However, we’ve been asked to make a provision inside the terminal, so as when it happens, there’s a place for it to connect,” Mr Douglas added.
The Midfield Terminal is key to the expansion plans of Abu Dhabi International Airport which is undergoing rapid growth, driven by the route expansion of Etihad Airways.
Etihad, which demonstrated an aggressive buying spree at last month's Dubai Airshow, is planning to have by 2020 more than 160 aircraft and nine fleet types that include 10 Airbus A380s and 41 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
“Etihad’s first delivery of A380s is towards the back end of next year. We have already got capacity to have the A380 at Terminal 3. We have a project ongoing at the moment working with our partner Etihad to add three additional A380 gates there as well. So this is part of the schedule,” Mr Douglas said.
The new Terminal 3, a Dh1 billion interim facility, was designed to allow for the airport’s passenger growth before the planned opening of the new Midfield Terminal on July 17, 2017. Used predominantly by Etihad, the terminal boosted the airport’s seven million passenger per year capacity to 12 million.
The airport expansion is part of Dh35.8bn in airport-related construction planned in the emirate under the Abu Dhabi 2030 Economic Vision.
selgazzar@thenational.ae