Ten years late, gigantic terminal at stopover airport finally opens

Airport development is big business right now. Melbourne Airport continues its makeover. Adelaide has just announced it’s doing one too, costing $1 billion.

And on the world stage, India is building what will be the country’s biggest airport: Noida International Airport, in Uttar Pradesh’s Jewar to the tune of $US4 billion ($6.1 billion).

Abu Dhabi’s new Terminal A features energy efficient lighting and air-conditioning systems.

Poland is getting a new airport near Warsaw; Los Angeles International’s $US14 billion upgrade that began in 2009 is due for completion next year. And Singapore’s Changi, not one to sleep while the competition is busy, is planning to start work on its T5 in 2025.

Its competition? Right now, it’s another hub, Abu Dhabi, where the new Terminal A has just started welcoming travellers, a decade after it was due.

The much-delayed 742,000-square metre terminal is among the biggest in the world but it’s the tech that sets the new benchmark.

Terminal A has a range of interconnected biometric systems designed to digitise the journey from pre-travel to boarding gate, including self-service kiosks, streamlined security checkpoints and slick new baggage handling systems.

A business class check-in area.

It’s set to handle up to 45 million passengers a year, be able to process 11,000 travellers an hour and operate 79 aircraft at any given time. For comparison, the biggest airport in the UAE, Dubai, does about 80 million across three terminals. (Changi can handle 70 million all up across its various terminals.)

Abu Dhabi, home to Etihad Airways, recently reported 10,258,653 passengers passing through the previously existing terminals between January 1 and June 30, 2023, up 36 per cent on the year before.

Etihad’s business class lounge games room.

The international firm that designed the new terminal, Kohn Pedersen Fox, has won gongs including Best Innovative Design Project at the International Airport Review Awards in 2019 and an International Architecture Award (Chicago Athenaeum 2017).

It says: “Conceived as a gateway to Abu Dhabi, the Terminal A Building is raised up from the road level giving the appearance of sitting on its own plateau. In this context the building is the dominant and most imposing structure on the horizon with a profile silhouetted against the sky. At night the building’s illuminated interior creates a transparent structure which is visible from the highway over 1500 metres away.”

As striking as it is, the building also features energy-efficient lighting, advanced heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and sustainable materials in its construction with a solar photovoltaic system on the Terminal A car park roof.

Much like the terminals in the competing hubs in Dubai and Qatar, Abu Dhabi Terminal A will also feature lounges, relaxation zones, and spa facilities as well as 163 retail and food and beverage outlets.

See adairports.ae