Disney's next theme park will be getting a rail connection to an international airport less than five miles away.
The Abu Dhabi Transport Company this week announced plans for Abu Dhabi Tram Line 4, which will connect the new Terminal A at Zayed International Airport with attractions on Yas Island, the home of the upcoming Disney Abu Dhabi project.
A map of the planned tram line suggested that the new Disney theme park would be built on the north side of Yas Island (see this article, though the photo is grainy), but that label was covered in other photos that are now available online. Update: You can see the original version of the map in this Instagram reel if you have super-fast fingers to pause on it. (Thanks to our friends over at Forbes for that link.)
Neither Disney nor Yas Island owner and developer Miral - which will be building and operating the Disney theme park - have confirmed officially where on Yas Island the new park will be.
Yas Island now is home to three theme parks: Warner Bros. World, Ferrari World, and SeaWorld, as well as a Formula 1 race track, arena, outdoor water park, and shopping mall. (Click those links for our in-depth reviews and theme park visitors guides.) In May, Disney and Miral announced plans for a new Disney theme park on the resort: Miral is bringing a Disney theme park to Abu Dhabi.
Hourly capacity for the system is estimated at 6,600 passengers, with trams running every five minutes. With Yas Island located so close to the airport, the tram should be able to bring visitors from their airport to their accommodations or the parks on Yas Island in just a few minutes, without having to navigate road traffic, which can be substantial around the airport at certain times of day.
Right now, the Disney theme park with the fastest direct mass transit connection with an international airport is Disneyland Paris, which is connected by France's TGV system to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Construction on the Abu Dhabi tram line is expected to begin next year, with plans for completion by 2030, which has been rumored but not confirmed as a target date for Disney's opening in Abu Dhabi.
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Disney in the USA doesn't feature The Flintstones, but Abu Dhabi do.