Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Airport International Group (AIG), the Jordanian company responsible for the rehabilitation, expansion and operation of the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA), reported positive growth in QAIA traffic in March for the third consecutive month this year.

Passenger traffic (PAX) at the new airport reached 549,861 PAX in March 2013, up more than 8.6% from 506,189 PAX in the same month last year.

As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) PAX rate went up some 5.6% from 1,395,008 PAX in 2012 to 1,472,524 PAX this year. Aircraft movement (ACM) witnessed an approximate 2.7% increase when traffic rose from 5,545 ACM in March 2012 to 5,692 ACM in March 2013, pushing YTD ACM up by almost 3.6%.

"The new Queen Alia International Airport is uniquely designed to absorb Jordan’s forecast surge in passenger and aircraft traffic, as national efforts focus on promoting the Kingdom as a tourism destination and convenient stop-over point," said Kjeld Binger, CEO of AIG.

"Upon its official launch, QAIA propelled its annual capacity from 3.5 million to 7 million passengers. When phase 1 is completed after demolition of the old terminal, the capacity will be 9 million and we aim to take this figure up to 12 million passengers at later stages. Our steadily growing monthly and YTD traffic rates are a promising indication that things are going as planned, and we look forward to continuing our progress,"