JAKARTA - Zayed International Airport recorded a record 32.5 million passengers in 2025, an increase of 12.8 percent year-on-year, driven by the expansion of Etihad Airways and new airlines serving Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Etihad Airways flight hub is expanding its network with 39 new route launches as the airline introduces services to new international destinations, from Atlanta to Hanoi, said state-owned operator Abu Dhabi Airports.
The airport also gained seven new airline customers, including China Eastern Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, German low-cost airline Eurowings, and Kuwaiti budget airline Jazeera Airways.
Passenger traffic through the airport in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased 13.8 percent year-on-year to 8.59 million, helped by increased frequency on high-demand routes and deeper connectivity in key markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"This performance is a clear indicator of our operational readiness to meet the growing global demand," said Ahmed Al Shamisi, acting chief executive of Abu Dhabi Airports, as reported by The National (10/3).
"Our focus remains on maintaining this momentum through operational excellence and the continued expansion of our cargo and logistics capabilities to support Abu Dhabi's continued growth as a global aviation hub," he explained.
This was achieved despite Etihad Airways' aggressive expansion of its international route network last year. The airline carried 22.4 million passengers in 2025, up 21 percent from the previous year, marking "the highest annual total in the airline's history," it said in early January.
The airline load factor, the measure of how well airlines fill available seats with passengers, reached 88.3 percent in 2025, up from 86.8 percent the previous year.
"With the largest fleet in Etihad's history, namely 127 aircraft, Etihad is in a better position than ever to welcome more visitors to Abu Dhabi," said Etihad Airways chief executive Antonoaldo Neves, January.
The airport and airline expansion is in line with Abu Dhabi's broader plans to increase direct traffic to the emirate and attract more international visitors.
It is known that the Abu Dhabi Tourism Strategy 2030 outlines plans to increase the number of visitors to 39.3 million and increase the sector's contribution to GDP to 90 billion dirhams by the end of the decade.
Abu Dhabi is working on a detailed master plan to expand Zayed International Airport, with construction scheduled to begin by the end of 2027.
Terminal A of the airport, which opened in 2023, has a capacity for 45 million passengers, and there are plans to increase it to 65 million.
In its second year of operations, Zayed International Airport, formerly known as Abu Dhabi International Airport, accounted for around 98 percent of all passenger traffic through the emirate, the statement said.
According to Abu Dhabi Airports, the five airports in the emirate recorded more than 33 million passengers last year, "the largest influx of tourists in the emirate's history."
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