Anticipating the need for larger airports and more passenger services over the next decade, Dubai Airports has embarked on two expansion projects – one each at Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC). Addressing the media in Mumbai, Julius Baumann, Corporate Communications Manager, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Dubai Airports and Zaigham Ali, Manager Media Relations, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Dubai Airports divulged details of the company’s plans for the two establishments.
The Dubai International Airport, Baumann stated, welcomed 66.43 million passengers in 2013, and has grown 15.5 per cent per annum since its launch in 1961. In 2013 it was named the second busiest airport in the world after Heathrow London. India, Ali added, is the number one source market for the airport, with an airline network that connects Dubai to 18 Indian cities. In 2013 the airport saw a 14.3 per cent increase in passenger numbers from India.
According to Baumann, the airport’s forecast figures for unconstrained passenger traffic show 126 million passengers by 2020, and 300 million passengers by 2050. The findings encouraged Dubai Airports to enhance the runways and passenger facilities at Dubai International Airport to allow more flights and passenger capacity, which they achieved with Concourse A, thus increasing its capacity to 75 million passengers per annum. Additionally, Terminal 2 of the airport will double in capacity by 2015. Concourse D of the airport, slated to open by mid 2015, will provide for 100 more aircraft and taking the figure up to 80 million passengers. In all, the expansion projects will take the airport’s passenger capacity to a little over 100 million passengers per annum.
Recognising that the Dubai International Airport will not be able to then accommodate further expansion, Dubai Airports has planned to embark on an expansion of the smaller Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central by next year. The airport will undergo a US$32 billion expansion to become the world’s largest airport, with each concourse the size of seven football fields, revealed Ali.
“This expanded airport will give Dubai the capacity to hold maybe over 200 million passengers. The airport will feature five simultaneously operational runways, all A380 compatible. In addition, we plan to enhance the customer experience, such as recording passenger information at one central point once and for all instead of requesting it every few steps, checking out outside the airport, having luggage delivered after you leave the airport, and so on. Specifics are not available, but the idea is to give the passengers a completely different experience,” said Ali.
