ABU DHABI // Abu Dhabi International Airport opened its second runway yesterday as it prepares for an estimated 20 million passengers a year by 2015. The Government's tourism goal called for expanding the airport and Etihad Airways as part of a plan to double the number of visitors to the emirate by 2012, to 2.7 million a year. The new runway, which cost Dh1 billion (US$270m), is part of a Dh25bn (US$6.8bn) expansion that includes the building of Terminal 3 and a 100-metre air traffic control tower. By the end of 2011, a 550,000 sq/m midfield terminal is scheduled to be complete. It will eventually bring passenger capacity to 40 million a year. The new runway can now be used for daytime flights and is expected to accommodate night flights in the first quarter of next year. It gives the airport more flexibility by allowing flights to continue when the other runway is closed for maintenance. In its final phase, the runway is expected to be certified as a CAT III B runway, making it the most advanced runway in the region, suitable for use when there is very low visibility. Both runways can accommodate the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, which entered commercial service last year. The symbolic first flight on the new 4,000m-long, 60m-wide runway took off about 11am yesterday, carrying journalists and VIPs. Built with the new runway were two fire stations and connecting taxiways with the original runway, which is 2,000m to the south. The inaugural flight was boarded from Terminal 3, which has been in use since early September, although passengers have been checking in at Terminal 1 and taking coaches to their departure gate. Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) and Etihad said they would work to increase the number of departures from the terminal before moving to accept arriving planes "within the next few weeks". The terminal is an interim measure to help manage the expansion of Etihad Airways, which increased the number of its passengers by 70 per cent last year and in July ordered 100 planes from Boeing and Airbus. James Hogan, Etihad's chief executive, has said Terminal 3 - which cost Dh1bn - would be used mostly for the airline's long-haul flights to Australia, North America and Europe. By early next year, a duty-free shopping area and a food court are to open in it. Rudy Vercelli, the chief executive of Adac, said Terminal 3 was being opened in phases to avoid problems like those experienced at London Heathrow, where hundreds of flights were cancelled and thousands of pieces of luggage lost when its Terminal 5 opened in March. "There are a lot of glitches, many systems, a lot of things that can go wrong because it is a new facility," Mr Vercelli said. "We endeavour, in order to keep the service quality we have kept for our passengers and our stakeholders, to do this in a phased approach." The airport's year-to-date passenger figure reached 5,962,175 in August, up 34.3 per cent from the comparable period last year. Adac also operates the airport in Al Ain and at Al Bateen military base - which it plans to turn into an executive airport - and has said it will start a shuttle service to Sir Bani Yas Island in Al Gharbia. Mr Vercelli also restated yesterday Adac's desire to acquire and manage foreign airports. "It is our company's intent to carry our business abroad," he said. "There are places where we can actually go and take high-level service, our quality of organisation and our business plan to selected endeavours." mchung@thenational.ae
