Abu Dhabi International Airport handled a record 9.7 million passengers in 2009, thus registering a 7.3 per cent annual growth, said Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), which is responsible for operation of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain airports.
Abu Dhabi International Airport is one of the few aviation hubs in the world to have achieved a healthy growth, while it has considerably outperformed the negative global average (-3.0%), it said.  
Releasing its full year traffic figures for 2009, ADAC said the cargo traffic also demonstrated a robust increase of seven per cent while total flights amounted to 102,118, up 9.6 per cent compared to last year.
In 2009, Abu Dhabi International Airport offered direct scheduled services to 80 destinations in 46 countries and also welcomed eight new airlines - Air Asia X,  Bahrain Air, Elite Aviation, Jat Airlines, Jazeera Airways, Safi Airways, Sun Air and Ukraine International Air.
Khalifa Al Mazrouei, Chairman of ADAC said: "Despite the adverse global economic climate and the consolidation observed in the aviation industry during 2009, Abu Dhabi International has proven to be a resilient airport operation, with solid growth in both passenger and cargo traffic numbers demonstrating this".