Ever since anyone can remember, Singapore’s Changi has been acclaimed as the world’s number one airport. Helping to catapult it to the top of the global rankings were speedy check-in, an outdoor swimming pool, spas for all, spiffy lounges and Jewel, a £1 billion complex in which those with a long layover can eat, shop and relax among the palm trees, butterfly garden and giant waterfall.
Until now. Sorry Changi, but you’ve been upstaged. Every airport in the world should aim to be as good as Abu Dhabi International Airport, which has undergone a £2.3 billion transformation to add a completely new terminal and will be known from February as Zayed International when the old building is shut permanently.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask Tom Cruise. He and his Mission Impossible team chose the airport for the longest chase sequence in Dead Reckoning Part 1, the latest film in the franchise.
With its swooping glass curves, the new Gulf hub not only looks great from the outside, it’s so bright and airy inside it does not feel like an airport — which is precisely the point, says Antonoaldo Neves, the new boss of Etihad, Abu Dhabi’s flag carrier. “We want to do our own thing, to define a unique identity. Something original and better.”
I was among the first passengers (after Tom Cruise) to fly in and out of the airport and I noticed the difference before I headed off to the airport from downtown Abu Dhabi.
Advertisement
It has only one terminal, so I don’t have to check where I should be going. I just tell the taxi driver: “Airport, please.” Having one terminal might sound unwieldy, but the entrance is vast, with enough check-in desks, automated check-in machines and bag-drop terminals for all 28 airlines that use it — 29 when British Airways resumes flights from Heathrow to the capital of the United Arab Emirates next year. I reach security in less than two minutes on a busy travel day, even 24 hours after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
New tech helps. All passengers can register their face as their ID and use it to check in and clear passport control. It happens automatically for passengers who have flown in, as I had two days earlier and been photographed at Arrivals immigration. My passport stays in my bag. Some may find this creepy — but it’s certainly convenient.
New scanners mean I also do not need to take anything out of my hand luggage. My laptop, iPad and liquids and I are through security in less than one minute. Other airports are introducing all this technology but it is slow going, notably at Heathrow.
Every airport should copy Abu Dhabi’s layout. The central hub of shops and restaurants is big enough for the 45 million passengers who will pass through it each year — up from 20 million at the old airport — and the gates are arranged on lots of short tentacles leading off it in different directions. From above, the airport looks like an octopus. This means walking distances to the gate are very short, unlike at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok or the new Istanbul airport, where you set off for the gate in spring and arrive in autumn.
There’s also no need for the kind of transit trains you find in so many other airports where the gates are in a line, going in one direction. Neves claims the average time from check in to the gate will be seven minutes — actually I did it more speedily.
Advertisement
The extra time you will have in the hub is easily spent. The shops are not the usual big name luxury brands, there’s a branch of the Japanese store Muji for example. If you just want to relax, head for the outdoor terrace or one of the two spas.
Those with a long layover will soon be able to check into the 138-room airside hotel. Anyone flying to the US can clear immigration and customs in Abu Dhabi, so they don’t have to queue when they arrive in America.
The Etihad lounges are spread over three floors and are, by some margin, the best in the world. First-class passengers enter via a private lobby and lift and enjoy private family rooms that have Giorgio Armani Casa furniture, daybeds and private bathrooms. They can dine à la carte in the room or at the restaurant with dishes including crab and lobster with grand cru classé burgundy and bordeaux wines.
In the vast top-floor Constellation Bar, which features caramel-coloured leather chairs and a 25m-long light sculpture, business-class passengers can sip cocktails and enjoy the views over the airport. There are live cooking stations in the restaurants in the business-class lounge, serving Arabic and Asian dishes. (Top tip: all the curries are good.)
All business and first-class passengers will soon be able to enjoy a manicure and pedicure in the lounge’s spa. Men can have a traditional wet shave in the barbers. Etihad’s Airbus A380s superjumbos are parked in front of the lounge and travellers can board directly from three dedicated in-lounge gates.
Advertisement
But, perhaps the best thing of all about the lounges is that economy class passengers can buy access: it’s four hours for £126 in the business class lounge and £170 in first class.
In the city, families with young children and lots of luggage can check in their bags in downtown Abu Dhabi the night before their flight and go to the airport with hand luggage and prams only. For those arriving in business or first class, the chauffeur drive is off the baggage reclaim hall, so you don’t have to go through the main exit to get to your car.
The airport is green(ish), running on largely solar-generated electricity. Jets at the gate plug into the airport’s power network, so don’t have to run their engines until they’re taxiing to the runway. It could do with more such leading-edge tech. The new security scanners won’t allow containers of liquids larger than the usual 100ml in hand luggage. It would be better still if there were a super-fast rail link to the airport with the opportunity to check your bags at the station — you have to take a car or the bus. The chauffeured drive for business and first class passengers is in a petrol-powered, not electric, BMW. Not very COP28.
For years, airports have tried to convince passengers that they are destinations in their own right. “Your holiday starts here!” Most of us continue to regard them as the seventh circle of hell. Abu Dhabi airport is still an airport — and one in a rather sleepy town — but it’s one to which I’d recommend going early. The only duff moment for me came right at the end of my journey through the hub. I had to — so retro — show my passport at the gate to board my plane home to London. Neves tells me: “Soon you’ll be able to use your face for that, too.”
What features do you think new airports should include? Let us know in the comments below
Advertisement
Sign up for our Times Travel newsletter and follow us on Instagram and X
