‘When we build it they will come.’ This is was the message from the developers of Jebel Ali Airport City, Dubai’s vast 140km2 airport complex which had its international aviation trade and media launch at the show yesterday with the revealing of a new branding as World Central.
On completion, the Jebel Ali International airport, (JXB) will be the combined size of London Heathrow and Chicago O’Hare airports, with handling capacity of more than 120 million passengers and more than 12 million tonnes of cargo a year.
With at least six parallel runways and as many concourses, the visionary project is designed to serve the emirate’s needs until 2050 and beyond.
Khalifa Al Zaffin, director engineering and projects at the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, says: “The longest journey starts with the first step and this is a giant leap ahead for Dubai’s constantly growing aviation infrastructure.”
Al Zaffin contests a claim that local projects have a tradition of being over budget and late with a contrary remark questioning how many such projects were under budget and on time.
He cites significant interest from the cargo community to take advantage of the facility because of current space constraints, but is more circumspect in his comments about passenger business, saying carriers had yet to make commitments. He highlights the double digit growth at the current airport as a rationale for the massive new complex, which will be 10 times the size of the current airport.
At the core of Jebel Ali Airport City, and scheduled to be the project’s first component to launch operations at the end of 2007, is Dubai Logistics City (DLC), a free zone for businesses which require, or provide, logistics and multimodal transport services throughout the Middle East, India, Africa, Southeast Europe and the CIS, a market of more than two billion consumers.
Michael Proffitt, chief executive of Dubai Logistics City, says grading work for the first 4,500m (15,000ft) runway is already advanced.
HUGH MCATEAR
Source: Flight Daily News
