Dubai presses ahead with $32b expansion of new airport

|By TAP Staff| A $32 billion project to make the Al Maktoum International airport at Dubai World Central as the world’s biggest airport has received approval. When completed, the airport targets to handle more than 200 million passengers per year.

The first phase of the expansion alone aims to build enough runway and terminal space to handle 120 million passengers a year and 100 mammoth Airbus A380 double-decker jets at any given time.

The world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, handled 94.4 million people last year.

AP quoted Paul Griffiths, chief executive of state-backed airport operator Dubai Airports, as saying Dubai aims to have the first phase of the expansion complete in six to eight years. That part of the project includes adding two new runways and two large concourses housing dozens of aircraft gates each.

“It’s a very aggressive time scale … but I think that we have a track record here of doing remarkable things in a remarkably challenging time frame,” Griffiths said in his office at the city’s main airport, Dubai International.

As later phases are completed, the new airport will eventually boast five parallel runways spaced far enough apart so they can all be used at the same time, and have enough gates for hundreds of wide-body planes.

Dubai World Central opened for cargo flights in 2010 with a single runway in the desert south of central Dubai. It received its first passengers in October at a single terminal that is mainly used by smaller airlines and low-cost carriers.

The currently larger Dubai International ranked as the world’s seventh busiest airport last year, handling 66.4 million passengers. It too is being expanded, with a new concourse expected to open next year.

Griffiths says Dubai needs to expand to keep pace with the rapid growth of airline traffic into the emirate. Much of the increase comes from hometown airline Emirates, the region’s largest carrier and the world’s biggest user of both the A380 and Boeing 777 long-haul jets.

Emirates is expected to move its hub to the new airport shortly after the first expansion phase is complete, freeing up space in the older airport for the well over 100 other airlines that already operate from it.

Griffiths is confident Dubai will be able to generate the funding needed to complete the project given the importance of aviation to Dubai’s economy. Officials say the industry contributes $22 billion annually to the local economy and supports some 250,000 jobs.

“The aviation sector has demonstrated that there is a very compelling economic case to suggest creation of further capacity is a very sensible thing to do,” Griffiths said. “I’m sure that the government will come up with the appropriate funding to make the project a reality.”