OREANDA-NEWS. Abu Dhabi Airports today reported that 2013 was once again a record year in Abu Dhabi International Airport's history. Passenger figures grew strongly throughout the year with figures up to more than 16.5 million, a 12.4% rise on 2012.

Aircraft traffic has, in parallel, registered a tangible increase with a total of 135,213 movements at Abu Dhabi International Airport, an increase of 11.2% from the previous year.

Freight traffic also had a highly successful year. More than 706,000 tonnes of cargo was handled in the 12-month period, a huge hike of 24.4%.

The increase in passenger, aircraft and cargo traffic is a result of Abu Dhabi Airports' strategy of on-going development of facilities and services to benefit its customers.  This has seen new airlines attracted to Abu Dhabi as well as existing air carriers expand their services to and from the UAE's capital city. Etihad Airways continued its growth plan during 2013 with the launch of new flights to Washington DC, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Ho Chi Minh, Belgrade and Sana'a, as well as increased frequencies on existing routes.

Etihad's new partnership with Jet Airways has seen a significant increase in traffic from India, and the airport welcomed in 2013 new routes to Riga in Latvia operated by Air Baltic and to Manila with flights operated by Philippines Airlines.

The top five destinations from Abu Dhabi throughout the year were India, Germany, England, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

Figures for the month of December 2013 show that the airport ended the year on a high note.  Passenger traffic was up 14.4% to more than 1.5 million air travellers compared to December 2012. Cargo tonnage was up 27% to 66,000 tonnes.  The number of aircraft movements went up by 9.9% to 12,052.  December was the airport's second busiest month of the year following August.