Dubai builds second airport to keep pace with passenger traffic

DUBAI - A patch of empty desert being flattened by bulldozers outside this fast-sprawling city could eventually become one of the world’s largest airports, officials here say.

By (AP)

Published: Mon 8 May 2006, 10:19 PM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 7:37 PM

Taxiways and one 4.5-kilometer (2.8 mile) runway have already been laid out on the sand, and plans call for five more runways, along with six concourses and two passenger terminals, the airport’s logistics chief Michael Proffitt said on Monday.

The airport, which already has the immodest name of Dubai World Central, is one element of Dubai’s plans to invest up to US$33 billion (euro26 billion) in building a second passenger and cargo hub to divert traffic from the overburdened Dubai International Airport.

Dubai World Central’s first runway and freight terminal are scheduled to open to cargo flights by the end of 2007, Proffitt said. Passenger flights won’t start until 2008, and will initially be restricted to budget airlines and charters, he said.

Passenger traffic at Dubai International, on the opposite end of the emirate, jumped 14 percent last year to 24 million passengers, and authorities expect it to handle 28 million this year.

A new US$4.1 billion (euro3.2 billion) terminal is expected to relieve immediate pressure at Dubai International when it opens next year, but the airport cannot easily expand further because it is hemmed in by Dubai’s neighborhoods. “It’s going to be maxed out in the near future,” Proffitt said.

Over the next six years, the emirate, which claims to be the world’s fastest growing city, will phase in the second airport to handle as many as 70 million yearly passengers, with 50 million tourists among them.

Proffitt said regular expansions of Dubai World Central would provide enough airport capacity until around 2050, when it could handle more than 120 million yearly passengers and 12 million tons (13 million US tons) of cargo - roughly the combined 2005 load of Chicago’s O’Hare and London’s Heathrow airports.

“This is being developed to ensure that Dubai has no constraints on passenger or cargo growth,” Proffitt said. “We need to forecast our requirements and have the buildings in place.”

Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on infrastructure and buildings in Dubai, which, officials here say, harbours 16 percent of the world’s construction cranes.

Dubai World Central is being laid out adjacent to the Jebel Ali free trade zone and seaport - the only regional port big enough to host US Navy aircraft carriers - on the emirate’s southwestern edge.

Proffitt said the airport complex would include a cargo and warehouse park, offices, homes and a golf course.