Abu Dhabi Airport

Abu Dhabi International Airport is the second most important airport in the United Arab Emirates after Dubai. It serves over 20 million travellers a year and consists of three passenger terminals, most of which are occupied by Etihad Airways, the country’s national airline and the second largest after Emirates.

It is one of only six airports in the world to offer direct flights to all inhabited continents (the others being Dubai, Johannesburg, Doha, New York and Houston) and on the airport’s two runways over 4,000 metres long planes take off and arrive 24 hours a day.

Connections between the airport and the city centre

Abu Dhabi International Airport is located about 40 km from the Corniche, which is the hub of the city and is about half an hour’s drive away. Connections are provided by public transport such as buses and taxis, and of course by hire cars.

From Abu Dhabi International Airport there are also buses provided by Etihad to Dubai, Al Ain and Sharjah. For those wishing to reach Ferrari World directly from the airport, it is only 15 minutes by taxi.

The evolution of Abu Dhabi Airport

The current Abu Dhabi Airport became operational in 1982 to replace Al Bateen Airport, at the time the emirate’s only airport, which with the rapid and sudden expansion of the city came to be too close to the city centre.

Between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, numerous works were carried out at Abu Dhabi airport to extend it and adapt it to the constantly growing passenger traffic: the existing terminal was restructured and Terminals 2 and 3 were built from scratch (the latter used mostly by Etihad and costing about 250 million euro), finally adding 10 new gates, two of which were compatible with the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

The airport today

As far as the amenities offered by the airport today are concerned, the most interesting is undoubtedly the City Terminal, a facility located in the centre of Abu Dhabi that offers departing passengers the opportunity to check in up to 8 hours before arriving at the airport: after checking in at the City Terminal, travellers can then reach the terminal only one hour before the departure of their flight.

Also not to be underestimated is the possibility of carrying out immigration checks to the United States directly in Abu Dhabi, similar to how it is done in Canada and Ireland, so that one can disembark in America without having to endure long queues at the border.

The airlines that fly to Abu Dhabi airport are the most important and well-known in the world: almost all major European cities are connected to the capital of the Arab Emirates thanks to the Etihad company. From here it is then possible to depart to the five continents on board Etihad’s modern fleet of seamless aircraft.

Arrivals and Departures