Farnborough Air Show: ADAC to establish first dedicated business aviation airport in the Middle East

Farnborough, England: The Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) has revealed plans to convert the former Al Bateen military airbase, outside Abu Dhabi, into the Middle East's first dedicated executive airport.  It made the announcement at the ongoing Farnborough air show.

''As a growing center of international business and finance, Abu Dhabi has seen significant growth in the number of corporate jets coming to the city over the last few years,'' noted ADAC chairman and managing director HE Khalifa Al Mazrouei. ''With this development, we will be able to meet that demand today and into the future.''

ADAC said it will invest more than $54 million to build additional facilities at the airport, which, it said, is ''just minutes from the city center.''

ADAC plans the new facility to be a ''one-stop shop'' business jet facility, complete with executive passenger terminals, airport services, maintenance, fuel, handling and other FBO services. It said that the airfield's 10,500-foot runway could easily accommodate corporate jets of the Boeing Business Jet/Airbus Corporate Jet class.

ADAC also said national and international business aviation companies and FBO operators had expressed interest in locating their operations at Bateen.