Abu Dhabi Airport New Terminal A has opened. Covering 742,000 square metres, it is one of the largest airport terminals in the world. I visited the brand new terminal yesterday and here are some information to share with you:
At a Glance
Terminal Capacity
The $3 billion building, which is triple the size of the old terminal, is set to double the current airport’s capacity and manage up to 45 million passengers per year. It’s capable of handling 79 planes at once and 11,000 passengers per hour.
Here are some photos I took at the landside area yesterday. I will be sharing more photos soon including the Etihad First and Business Class lounge.
The new Terminal A will cover 35,000 sq meters and house 163 retail concessionaires and F&B outlets, providing passengers with a wide range of shopping and dining options.
In addition to popular brands such as Gucci and Starbucks, Terminal A will also feature the world’s first Muji airport store.
Airlines Flying from Terminal A
The new facilities opened to the public on November 1, with a phased transition until November 14. Operations are currently being conducted simultaneously from Terminals A, 1, 2 and 3.
The terminal transition will happen in 3 phases, with 15 Int’l Airlines currently using it (Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, IndiGo, PIA, Air India etc).
From November 9, Etihad will operate 16 flights from the terminal. The national airline of the UAE encourages anyone travelling with them from November 9 to 11am on November 14 to check which terminal you’re flying to and from at etihad.com/TerminalAinfo.
If you’re transiting in Abu Dhabi between these dates, it’s important to check which terminal your next flight takes off from since the airline will be operating from Terminal 1, 3 and A, so you might need to move to another building.
For passengers with a connecting flight to the US who are in Terminal A, they must head to Gate F two hours before their next flight to leave enough time to board the shuttle bus and clear US immigration.
All airlines will be flying from Terminal A from November 15.
Complimentary inter-terminal shuttle buses are available to carry passengers between buildings.
These operate from Door 7 in Terminal A and Door 5 in Terminal 3.
Abu Dhabi International Airport is being renamed as Zayed International Airport, with the official new name to take effect from February 9.
Thanks for the report, and I’m excited to finally see the terminal — as I was working on this project about fifteen years ago! This will be a huge improvement over the existing facilities, which basically operate as a bus terminal due to limited contact gates. One minor correction — Muji stores already exist at airports in the Chinese Mainland, so this won’t be the first.
I am certainly curious what Etihad can do with the 787 because the current J product is rather underwhelming. I’ll take UAE and Abu Dhabi over Doha and Qatar any day in almost any possible aspect, but it’s got some catching up to do as far as it’s national airline.
I have never understood the cascading delays – which couldn’t be for want of money – but it has cost Etihad a lot in terms of customer experience. In my opinion the quality chasm between Qatar and Etihad has grown from de-minimus to rather pronounced and at this moment is closer to a good US carrier than those in the top ranks. When you are an airline that exists mostly as a hub and spoke system, a mediocre ground experience pulls down the entire product . . . and has done.
Part of the delay is due to one construction consortium went into bankruptcy. With new Premium cabin product and fully enclosed suite on new deliveries (A350/B787) I believe Etihad experience will be improving.