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Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport will expand direct connectivity from 17 to 22 Indian cities in August, driven by rising passenger demand. Airport officials said India remains a key tourism market, with Indian traffic growing over 20 per cent annually

Abu Dhabi: With India being a strong tourism market for Abu Dhabi, the city’s Zayed International Airport is to increase direct flights to 22 Indian cities in August, according to a senior executive. Currently, the airport has 17 direct connections to Indian cities. “We have now, as we speak, 17 cities which are online with Abu Dhabi Airport and in August that number will go from 17 cities to 22, which is already an amazing growth,” Abu Dhabi Airports Chief Commercial Officer Carsten Norland said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion in Abu Dhabi in connection with the launch of new flights to the city by Air India Express. The Tata Group-owned airline this week started flights to Abu Dhabi from Navi Mumbai, Indore and Lucknow. It will commence services from Guwahati to the Gulf city next month.

“India is a really strong market. The number of passengers coming here from India is growing more than 20 per cent every year. We are running out of traffic rights,” Norland said.

According to him, there is a high demand for more capacity and more destinations. “So we are ready, we have the capacity, and we can only wait to get more traffic rights so that we can increase the connections between India and Abu Dhabi even more,” he said.

Among other airlines, IndiGo and Akasa Air operate flights to Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Airports operates five airports in Abu Dhabi. They are Zayed, Al Ain, Al Bateen, Delma and Sir Bani Yas Island airports.

“Indian traffic is almost 7 million passengers, and that becomes 24 per cent of our traffic. Out of the 7 million, 5 million are point to point, that means people are actually staying here, and 2 million are using the network…,” Norland said.

During the panel discussion, Haitham Al Khamis of the Department of Tourism and Culture said India is one of Abu Dhabi’s most important markets and an outstanding strategic partner.

“The relationship is beyond tourism and is built on strong people-to-people ties, business links… Indian diaspora has made Abu Dhabi their second home…,” he said.

Al Khamis is the Director of Tourism Product Development at the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Airports, in a release on July 2, said that between June 26 and 30, Zayed International Airport welcomed an average of more than 93,000 passengers and close to 500 flights per day, connecting travellers to over 100 destinations worldwide.