The Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) has announced the selection of France’s Aeroport de Paris, Ingenierie (ADPi) for the design and supervision services for the new Air Traffic Control Complex (ATCC) at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The ATCC is to be positioned midway between the two runways and will include a five-storey technical and support building integrated with a 110-m-high visual control tower. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art navigational and meteorological equipment to ensure the safe and timely arrival of aircraft at the new Midfield Terminal Complex. Pre-design activities will begin immediately.
When it goes operational in April 2008, the tower will enable the airport to handle up to 70 takeoffs and landings per hour.
The Dh402 million ($109.7 million) ATCC project is part of a Dh30 billion re-development programme designed to transform the airport into an ultra-modern gateway.
“We are firmly on course to our ultimate objective,” confirms Adac chairman and managing director Khalifa Mohammed Al Mazrouei. “A significant portion of the interim phase has already been completed and major infrastructural projects are quickly gathering momentum.”
Al Mazrouei says work has already begun on a second runway. Construction of an interim terminal for the exclusive use of Etihad Airways is due to begin shortly and a designer for the mega Midfield Terminal complex will be confirmed soon.
The company inked a Dh1 billion contract with Odebrecht-Al Jaber, a UAE-Brazilian joint venture, to construct a 4,100 m runway spaced at a distance of 2,000 m from the existing runway. Work on the Category III runway will be completed by November 2007.