Report: Abu Dhabi airport’s new MTB opening likely in 2023
Abu Dhabi is planning the highly-awaited MTB opening this year, according to new reports
The UAE’s Abu Dhabi Midfield Terminal Building’s (MTB) opening is reportedly scheduled to take place around December 2023.
Citing the Momberger Airport Information, Airports Council International World (ACI World)
reported the MTB’s opening will likely take place on 2 December, the UAE’s National Day.
Upon completion, Abu Dhabi MTB is expected to accommodate up to 11,000 passengers per hour or about 45 million passengers annually.
Abu Dhabi’s terminals 1 and 2 are expected to be shut down permanently, while T3, the latest addition, “will likely be mothballed”, ACI World reported.
Its report added: “Depending on traffic development, at one point it could be used again during peak times as a remote boarding lounge. It could also be developed into a standalone terminal including landside, for example, for budget carriers.
“There is a road tunnel leading from [MTB] to the present terminal, which would facilitate easy connections for passengers. The midfield terminal can also be expanded with a satellite boarding concourse.”
Project stakeholders have yet to formally comment on ACI World’s
reportregarding the MTB opening timeline.
MTB opening: key announcements timeline
In
November 2019, chief programs officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, Sulaiman Al Siksek, said construction work on the MTB was more than 97 percent complete.
Spanning 742,000 square metres (sqm), of which 28,000 sqm will be allocated as retail and food and beverage space and 30,000 sqm as lounges, the
MTB systemis expected to feature 145 elevators, 46 travelators, and 106 passenger bridges.
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Images of Abu Dhabi’s Midfield Terminal project
In December 2017, Abu Dhabi Airports announced the completion of tunnel linking for the MTB with terminals 1 and 3 of Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The authority commissioned the Midfield Airside Road Tunnel (MART) to link the MTB with the southside terminals of the airport.
The MART tunnel is approximately 1,165 metres (m) long with average overall width of 35m, and will provide airside connectivity between the existing terminals and the MTB.
The link will permit transit of passenger busses, transfer baggage, crew busses, catering trucks, ground services equipment, cargo vehicles and emergency service vehicles.
MTB opening: project background
MTB is planned to become one of the region’s largest facilities of its kind. Its designs envision handling capacity for tens of millions of annual
passengers and a baggage handling system that can process almost half a million bags a day, according to a Wam report from July 2019.
MTB opening plans were viewed as a key element of the Midfield Terminal Complex (MTC) in Abu Dhabi. According to a Construction Week
visit to the project’s site in November 2013, MTC plans included cargo and catering facilities, utilities and related infrastructure.
Construction on the MTB project started in September 2012.
In May 2012, Abu Dhabi Airports Company
confirmed a joint venture consortium of the local Arabtec, Turkey’s TAV Construction and Greece’s Consolidated Contractors Co as contractor for the MTB project.
China State Construction Engineering Corporation’s Middle East office was also involved with the MTB project. The contractor was awarded the $163 million contract for the construction of steelworks for the MTB.
MTB is planned to become the first airport terminal in the region to benefit from ultra-high speed connectivity, delivered by the Etisalat’s 5G network, it was confirmed in June 2019.
The deployment will be based on C-Band, a first-of-its-kind in 5G digital indoor technology delivering gigabit per second download speeds.
In July 2019, Abu Dhabi Airports conducted an intermediate full operational trial of the MTC as part of the continuing development of the terminal complex and its operational readiness and airport transfer (ORAT) process.
The trials, which were designed to thoroughly test the new building’s capacity and facilities, involved more than 800 volunteers, and two Etihad Aviation Group aircraft, taking part in simulating the operation of the terminal.
https://www.constructionweekonline.com/news/mtb-opening-airport-2023