Midfield's X-Factor

Fresh from winning a string of prestigious awards for Abu Dhabi International Airport, including the 2012 Skytrax “Best Airport in the Middle East” title, Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) is back in the spotlight with yet another jaw-dropping venture.

Over the next five years the construction site at the Midfield Terminal Building (MTB) in Abu Dhabi will be a hive of activity.

ADAC has been scrutinising numerous bids for the Dh10.8 billion ($2.94 billion) project and in June the company awarded the contract to the joint-venture company created by the Turkish construction group TAV, Consolidated Contractors’ Company, (CCC), and the UAE’s Arabtec.

The new passenger terminal is planned to be impressive architecturally; featuring an undulating roof, inclined facade and the use of advanced technology – this will prove to be a significant endeavour in the quest to out-class the already high-tech projections at other terminals under development in the region.

“As you know, we are currently building airports in Qatar, Oman and Tripoli,” said TAV Group CEO Sani Sener. “Following the tenders we have won in Medina and Jeddah of Saudi Arabia, we are extremely happy to be awarded the Abu Dhabi Airport tender, achieving such success and adding this $3 billion mega project to our portfolio.”

Passenger numbers at the three main sixth-freedom hubs in the Middle East – Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi – continue to rise despite the regional disruptions that have affected travel in parts of the region. The three airports added 7.7 million passengers between them in 2011, according to data from aviation analysts CAPA.

Combined, the three hubs had an average passenger traffic growth rate of 10.5%. This is a notably stronger performance than the rest of the Middle East, where international traffic expanded 8.9% over 2011.

Abu Dhabi International alone has recorded a growth rate of 19.7% over the last five years.

The project will include two key phases; the construction phase, followed by the operational readiness assessment phase (ORAT), where during a nine-month period thorough tests of all aspects of the terminal will take place to ensure operational and efficiency readiness from the first day of operation.

Munch Airport Consulting will perform the ORAT exercise.

One of the unique aspects of this project is the effective use of building information modelling (BIM), which enables potential problems to be predicted in a 3D working environment. BIM is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of a facility.

The resulting building information models become shared knowledge resources to support decision-making about a facility from earliest conceptual stages, through design and construction, to its operational life and eventual demolition.

The 700,000sqm terminal building will play a key strategic role. It will initially handle 30 million passengers per year and is set to become the future home of national airline Etihad Airways.

Focusing extensively on passenger experience, ADAC is adamant that the design of the terminal will meet the highest quality and service standards, including the IATA level of service ‘A’ (the highest levels of space allocation for passenger processing areas).

The terminal is designed to accommodate up to 65 aircraft and inside the building the check-in area will be capable of handling about 8,500 passengers per hour through 165 counters and 48 self-service kiosks. The baggage system is designed to process more than 19,000 bags per hour.

The building will be constructed using around 69,000 tonnes of steel, more than 680,000 cubic metres of concrete, nearly 500,000sqm of steel and glass cladding and 325,000sqm of natural stone flooring.

Passenger facilities will also include more than 27,500sqm of airline hospitality lounges, a transit hotel and a heritage and cultural museum. There will be 136 security-screening lanes for passengers, with a further 25 for staff.

The key to achieving and meeting the challenge for the MTB project is adaptability and being able to use the scale and scope economies very efficiently, according to Sener. 

TAV Construction’s business volume has reached $11 billion in less than 10 years. He said the main factor behind this fast and balanced growth comes from the efforts of employees across the entire operation, as well as the management model that provides the company with the ability to work under all circumstances and grow. “We will be building one of the most impressive terminals in the world through this mega project that we are undertaking together with our partners,” he said.

A new cargo facility will have an ultimate handling capacity of around two million tonnes of cargo annually. Not surprisingly, Etihad will be the main user.

Close to the new cargo facilities, land has been allocated for commercial activities, business parks and property developments. Aircraft maintenance facilities will continue to be concentrated on the south side of the existing airport. The plan also sets aside land for the growth of other operators such as Royal Jet and Abu Dhabi Aviation.

Meeting the needs of a rapidly expanding capital and responding to the natural environment is now a critical element of any new airport infrastructure in the Middle East. ADAC indicated that sustainable design requirements have played an important part in making the MTB an environmentally friendly building taking into account the ‘estidama’ approach towards sustainable design.

Estidama – meaning sustainability in Arabic – is a programme managed by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) based on a rating system that addresses seven categories; integrated development process, natural systems, liveable communities and buildings, water, energy materials and innovating practice. For each category there are mandatory and optional credits as well as weights with maximum credit points delivered to each.

The designers of the MTB made use of design elements, such as high performance and angled glass facades to avoid heat from entering the building, making air conditioning more efficient while providing day lighting for interior spaces. Solid cladding has also been integrated in the design, further reducing the impact of the sun. Environmental design initiatives that are being pursued also include water conservation, using waste water for irrigation of outdoor plants.

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, (KPF) the architects behind the new terminal, said the focus was on passenger experience and environmental impact. KPF explained that the building would be raised up from the road level, giving the appearance of sitting on its own plateau. “In this context the building is the dominant and most imposing structure on the horizon, with a profile silhouetted against the sky. At night the building’s illuminated interior creates a transparent structure visible from the highway more than 1,500m away,” said KPF.

On plan, the X-shape provides the greatest efficiencies, enabling the terminal to extend to 49 gates, which would ultimately process around 50 million travellers each year.  

As with other airport developments taking shape in the region, such grand infrastructure undertakings are triggered by the global ambitions of the incumbent national carriers – notably Etihad, Qatar and Emirates. For some time, they have been vying to attract more long-haul travellers to connect via their respective hubs – particularly between Europe and Asia.

If industry projections are right, growth over the next 20 years is forecast to be robust.

For instance, the new terminal three at Abu Dhabi opened in January 2009, a U$ 271.9 million facility primarily developed to cater to the airport’s passenger growth before the opening of the Midfield Terminal. Used predominantly by Etihad, the terminal boosted the airport’s seven million passenger capacity to 12 million annually. The new terminal three also added 10 new gates at the airport, two of which are A380 compatible.