The Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad Airways has started flights to the newly opened terminal Queen Alia airport in Amman, Jordan.

The airline is the first foreign carrier to start operations at the airport, with the facility having only partially opened on 3 March.

All airlines will be transferred to the new terminal by 21 March.

The new facility will increase the airport’s capacity to 9 million passengers annually, an increase from the current 3.5 million passenger capacity at the airport.

Future expansion plans could see the airport increase capacity to 12 million passengers.  

Passenger traffic at the airport has been growing, with figures for January showing a 2.6 per cent increase over the previous year. A total of 463,228 people passed through Queen Alia airport in the first month of this year.

The opening of the new terminal is much-needed, given that passenger traffic for the whole of 2012 hit an all-time high of 6,250,048 passengers, an increase of just over 14 per cent compared with 2011.