$7.8 b expansion for Dubai airport gets go-ahead

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, endorsed the programme earlier this week.

Aviation analysts welcomed the announcement and said the expansion plan shows strong future growth and it is extremely good news for the Middle East airlines that are undergoing fleet expansion plans.

The 10-year programme’s strategy includes aggressive expansion plans for airspace, airfield, aircraft stands and terminal areas at Dubai International over the remainder of the decade, which will optimise investment, deliver timely capacity and create a robust revenue stream, fuelled by increased commercial and retail income. This will fund the development of Dubai World Central in the long term.

It will support the continuation of the sector’s impressive growth, facilitate Dubai’s economic expansion and generate 22 per cent of the total employment and 32 per cent of the emirate’s GDP by 2020.

“The combination of rallying tourism, Dubai’s proximity to the emerging economies of India and China, and the emirates’ established role as a trading hub, is together expected to drive traffic growth and further elevate Dubai’s status as a global centre for aviation,” said Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority. It responds to a 10-year traffic forecast for Dubai International and Dubai World Central that projects international passenger and cargo traffic will increase at an average annual growth rate of 7.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

“By 2020, 98.5 million passengers and over four million tonnes of air freight will pass through our airports. The fleets and networks of Emirates and flydubai will grow considerably to accommodate traffic and capture market share. Similarly, our infrastructure must expand to enable this growth and facilitate the trade, tourism and commerce that in turn will support the prosperity of Dubai.”

According to aerospace and defence analyst Frost & Sullivan, with this massive airport expansion programme, Dubai aviation industry will witness growth and in turn add to the growth in the global aviation industry.

Saj Ahmad, Chief Analyst at FBE Aerospace London, said that more funds towards Dubai’s airports show that demand is strong and that future growth can only be exploited and accommodated by making the necessary infrastructure investments as soon as is reasonably possible.

Dubai Airports Chief Executive Paul Griffiths said: “Our plan effectively responds to the need to accommodate rapid traffic growth with timely, efficient and high quality infrastructure.”

The expansion plan is not only for ground facilities, but it will also cover airspace expansion.

In the air

Within the local airport environment, airspace expansion plans focus on optimising runway capacity and implementing efficient systems and processes in order to accommodate and manage additional aircraft movements. Beyond the vicinity of the airport itself, Dubai Airports is engaging national and regional civil aviation authorities and air navigation service providers to ensure that air routes are decongested, bottlenecks are reduced and latent airspace capacity is unlocked.

On the Ground

As airspace opens up, additional aircraft movements will be accommodated on the ground with the addition of a new taxiway and a 60 per cent increase in the number of stands needed to park and service aircraft.

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