Dubai getting close to new mega-airport decision

The Dubai government is currently evaluating plans for a new airport at Al Maktoum Airport with a capacity of 130 to 150 million passengers. A decision could be forthcoming this year. The new airport will likely be different from the previous mega-airport planned at Dubai World Central, says CEO Paul Griffiths of Dubai Airports. Dubai getting close to new mega-airport decision. The topic of the new airport was raised by Emirates President Sir Tim Clark during a media roundtable in Istanbul. As the plan is under evaluation by the government, he was unwilling to share any details of the size of the airport that will be located around the current DWC/Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai South. However, Clark admitted that Emirates has pushed for a revival of the plan. That’s the opposite of September 2019, when Tim Clark backed the decision by the government to put the expansion plan on hold. The 2014 masterplan included six terminal buildings, stands for 200 Airbus A380s, and five runways with a capacity of 200 to 240 million passengers a year. In 2017, ground works started for the future runways. The decision to freeze the project was made in 2018 and confirmed a year later after it was questioned if the concept would still stand by the time the airport would open in the mid-2020s. Paul Griffiths confirmed in Istanbul that the project is under review: “Since we last looked at the masterplan in about 2014, a huge amount has changed. The emphasis on the city (of Dubai) as a destination has changed. That’s now responsible for about sixty percent of our traffic, with forty percent being transfer passengers. And of course, with increased competition in the transfer markets, that is a very different proposition to where it was in 2014.” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths, speaking during a panel discussion at the IATA AGM in Istanbul. (IATA) “Also, technology has changed. Airport technology has actually transformed the passenger journey. It has removed a significant number of the legacy administrative steps that used to exist and we continue to work on that. Capacity is obviously key, but we believe that technological change and the infrastructure investment we are making at Dubai International Airport (DXB) will probably get the airport to between 110 and 120 million passengers. We are now probably this year just close to 86-87 million, which is only two million adrift from our pre-pandemic level. So growth is very much on the agenda.” DXB is physically constrained Griffiths says: “Our perspective is that, at some stage, there will be a requirement for a new airport. We physically run out of runway capacity and we don’t physically have the space to build more stands. And we obviously want to continue to improve customer service. The thing is, the big question is, how long does DXB continue to provide capacity without constraints for its airlines operating there, and when do we need a new airport? We are in the middle of trying to assess that. Once we got an answer, we will be able to get some sort of clarity as to what the masterplan will look like and what the phasing will be.” The size of the new airport is one of the aspects that is carefully studied, says Griffiths. “There is no point in building an airport the same size as DXB. We have got to go for something bigger. But the key is to make the project scalable, so we can add units of capacity just in time for when they are needed. That would be the most economical and most practical way of designing it.” DXB Airport has a maximum capacity of 110 to 120 million passengers. (Dubai Airports) “The other thing is that, clearly, large airports now are for the most part quite passenger-unfriendly. Long walking distances. I compare some of the walking distances when I travel. In some airports, you can walk three times the distance that you can walk. Even an airport like DXB isn’t actually ideally designed because of its legacy infrastructure. So I think a fundamental relook of what airports need to look like in the future is required, but we will do something I believe in the initial phase of at least 130 to 150 passengers, plus the option to develop further phases of the project as demand continues to build.” “The most important thing is the one thing that Sheikh Ahmed, my boss, and Sir Tim Clark’s boss, said to me on my first day when I joined Dubai Airports in 2007: whatever you do, do not constrain the growth of the aviation infrastructure in Dubai. That has been top of mind every single day from that moment on.” Unprecedented funding The new airport will require huge funding. For the original master plan, the Dubai government planned to invest $36 billion. Paul Griffiths isn’t giving numbers, or a time scale: “It is obviously a mega project and will require funding that is probably unprecedented in the airport world. We have to first define was is required and when it is required because that will have a huge impact on the financing model. We are in deep discussions on that at the moment. We will obviously be able to finalize something and announce it in due course.” One could think that the huge plans of Saudi Arabia, with massive expansion plans at Riyadh and Jeddah Airports and the creation of Riyadh Air as a second national airline, have woken the rulers in Dubai. That’s not the case, says Griffiths: “I don’t think we ever responded to anything. We always set the standard and we are quite flattered that others want to follow. I would say that for anything that puts the spotlight further on travel tourism in the Middle East, Dubai will be the beneficiary. We saw that during the World Cup in Doha (Qatar), when a huge number of people, over 400.000, slept in Dubai during the last quarter of last year. The majority of those were traveling to and from Qatar from the World Cup. Every single hub that develops in the region will encourage more travel and tourism to the region. That’s good for everyone, not just for the host country, but also for Dubai.” Tim Clark also said that there is no link between the dusting off the airport plan and the bold ambitions of the neighbors. “It’s us who is pushing for the airport to happen,” he said. During the media roundtable, Clark mentioned that Emirates has plans for huge maintenance facilities at DWC to cope with the growing fleet. Dubai South The new airport will be located in Dubai South, which already is being developed into a vast area for logistics companies, an executive aviation airport, the Emirates Flight Training Academy, MRO facilities, as well as commercial and residential areas. It can take up one to two hours by car from downtown Dubai to get there. Paul Griffith replies: “First of all, the city is expanding to the South, not to the North because we are constrained by the border with Sharjah. So all of the new population is actually in the South and will continue to develop in the South. If you take the line from The Palm, it is quicker to get to DWC than to get to DXB. A growing number of people will find DWC actually more convenient.” It is no issue for Dubai Air Navigation Services to have a mega airport so close to that in Abu Dhabi: “Not at all, Abu Dhabi is quite a long way South so there is no conflict there.”

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