Zayed International Airport

Abu Dhabi's current airport opened in 1982, replacing an older airfield closer to the city. Its original terminal became famous for the mushroom-shaped, green-tiled interior of its central satellite, a striking piece of late-1970s design. Traffic grew modestly until 2003, when the Abu Dhabi government founded Etihad Airways and made the airport its hub, triggering two decades of rapid expansion that included new terminal facilities and a second parallel runway opened in 2008.

The transformative project was the Midfield Terminal, a vast X-shaped building between the two runways that broke ground in 2012 and finally opened as Terminal A in November 2023 after years of delays. With capacity for about 45 million passengers a year, it ranks among the largest airport terminals in the world.

In February 2024 the airport was renamed Zayed International Airport in honor of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates. The airport also hosts one of the very few US Customs and Border Protection preclearance facilities outside the Americas, letting passengers clear American immigration before departure. It anchors Abu Dhabi's ambitions in long-haul travel, cargo, and aerospace maintenance.

Zayed International operates two widely spaced parallel runways (13L/31R and 13R/31L) with the enormous Terminal A positioned between them, an arrangement that shortens taxi times and supports independent simultaneous operations. Etihad Airways concentrates its entire long-haul network here, running connection banks between Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and a growing roster of foreign airlines add point-to-point traffic. The US preclearance facility lets America-bound passengers land as domestic arrivals. Etihad Cargo and logistics zones on the airport's fringe tie into Abu Dhabi's free-trade areas, with the older terminals now playing a secondary role.