
The proposed new airport will become the world's largest aviation
facility on completion and will have five runways which all will be
simultaneously operational, all A380-compatible with a length of 4.5 km
each.
"We are planning a USD 32-billion brand new airport at the
Dubai World Central at Al Maktoum, 30 km off the present Dubai facility.
In the first phase, the new airport will be able to handle 120 million
passengers, which will go up to 200 million by 2020, when the project is
completed," Dubai Airports Corporate Communications Head Julius Baumann
told.
"On completion, the new airport will be the world's
largest airport, with each concourse the size of seven football fields
and have five runways which all will be simultaneously operational, all
A380-compatible," Baumann said.
The other features include 200
aircraft stands for wide bodied aircraft, four concourses connected via
six airport trains to two terminals, which in turn will be linked to the
city's metro network. When complete, the mega-hub will have total
annual capacity exceeding 200 million passengers and 12 million tonne of
freight.
The existing Al Maktoum International opened its doors
to passengers on October 27, 2013 and three airlines are operating from
here. It has one A380 capable runway, 64 remote stands, one cargo
terminal with annual capacity for 250,000 tonne and a fully operational
passenger terminal building designed to accommodate 5 million passengers
annually.
The Dubai International Airport is the world's second
busiest airport after the London Heathrow and is on course to become the
global aviation hub, thanks to its geographical location and the
availability of cheap fuel.
The first phase of the new airport
includes a single A380 compatible runway, a passenger terminal with
capacity of 5 million passengers which is expandable to 7 million; a
cargo terminal with a capacity of 250,000 tonne per annum and expandable
to 600,000 tonne and a 92-metre air traffic control tower.
The
state-owned Dubai Airports already operates the Dubai International
Airport in the heart of the Arabian megapolis and the Al Maktoum
International Airport at the upcoming Dubai World Central (DWC).
The
DWC is a 140 sq km new international city being built to de-congest the
present city, Dubai Airports' Marketing & Corporate Communications
Manager Zaigham Ali said, adding the work on new airport will begin
early next year.
Apart from the new airport plan, the Emirate is
also expanding the Dubai International Airport with a USD 7.8 billion
investment to take the capacity to 100 million by 2020. This project was
started in 2011 and will be completed by 2016.
The expansion of
the Dubai International include a new concourse (Concourse D),
expansion of Terminal 2 to twice its current capacity, refurbishment of
Terminal 1, and additional aircraft stands, taxiways and aprons among
others.
Dubai International, Baumann said handled 66.43 million
passengers in 2013, and has being growing 15.5 per cent per annum since
its launch in 1960. In 2013, it was named the
second busiest airport
in the world after the London Heathrow. Ali said India is the largest
source market for the airport, with an airline network that connects
Dubai with 18 cities in the country.
In 2013, the airport saw a
14.3 percent increase in passenger numbers from India at 8.5 million and
in the first 9 months of this year, the number has already crossed 7
million.
Ali added the company is confident of crossing the last
year's mark this year. Explaining the rationale for a gigantic new
airport, Baumann said the airport's forecast figures for unconstrained
passenger traffic show 126 million passengers by 2020, and 300 million
passengers by 2050.
Additionally, the Terminal 2 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,
Ali said.
With a built-up area of 1,972,474 sqm, the Dubai
International Airport comprises three terminals and ranks among the
world's top two busiest airports for international passengers, serving
over 125 airlines flying to over 260 destinations, as per the Airports
Council International.
On the economic impact of the aviation
sector in Baumann, quoting an Oxford Economics report said, aviation
will contribute USD 53.1 billion to Dubai's economy, which is 37.5
percent to its GDP and will support over 750,000 jobs by the turn of
2020.
The aviation sector as a whole contributed USD 26.7 billion
to the Dubai economy in 2013, which was almost 27 percent of the
national GDP and supported 416,500 jobs accounting for 21 percent of the
Emirates' total employment.
Passenger traffic in September
totalled 5,942,628 compared to 5,407,326 recorded in the same month
last year, an increase of 9.9 percent. January-September rose 6.2
percent to 52,422,547, up from 49,379,165, while in 2013, the passenger
traffic stood 66,431,533, up 15.2 percent from
2012.