Dubai Airports is spending $5 billion on new terminals and infrastructure to increase by 50% capacity at the region's busiest hub over the next seven years.
Two new concourses - including the 20-gate Concourse 3, which Emirates will use exclusively for its Airbus A380s and is due to come into operation by early 2013 - will give Dubai International room for 90 million passengers, compared with 60 million today. An extension to Terminal 1, Concourse 4, will be completed by 2018.
The two-runway airport currently has three terminals: Emirates uses T3, T1 is used mostly by mainline airlines and T2 is for low-cost and smaller carriers. There are also two business aviation fixed-base operations at the Dubai Airport Free Zone.
Chief executive Paul Griffiths said being operational for 24h, seven days a week - including during the air show - helps Dubai International boost its capacity. But he added: "Given we have a fairly limited landmass, it's a pretty impressive throughput."
Dubai's new airport - Dubai World Central at Jebel Ali - is slowly taking shape. It is currently only used for cargo operations and is due to be "fully developed" with five runways and capacity for some 160 million passengers by the "end of the 2020s". Emirates is due to relocate its operation to the new airport mid-way through that decade and a few years later a decision will be made about the future of Dubai International, said Griffiths.
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Source: Flight Daily News
