Dubai airport likely to close after expansion of Al Maktoum

Dubai International Airport is likely to close in 10 years to make way for a new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International.

Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths told The National that the transfer of all passenger operations from Dubai International to Al Maktoum will happen in phases.

The new terminal, which will have five times the capacity of Dubai International, will also create opportunities for property developers in Al Garhoud, the site of the older airport.

“The way the city is growing is towards the south, so Dubai World Central will be a very convenient and quick journey once all the road and rail networks are in place,” Mr Griffiths said.

“It is quite probable that once the transition is complete, [Dubai International] will close to traffic and enable the redevelopment of the whole Al Garhoud area.

“There are tremendous opportunities for development in and around the existing airport. I cannot foresee that we will be operating it for very long. The idea of DWC is to get enough capacity to accommodate the future travel demand with an initial capacity of 150 million passengers and extending that to 260 million once all phases are completed.”

On Sunday, Dubai said it had approved designs for a new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International and launched construction at a cost of Dh128 billion ($34.8 billion).

At the Dubai Airshow in November, Emirates and flydubai announced multimillion-dollar orders for wide-body aircraft, meaning the airlines will need space for their growing fleets and expansion plans.

Dubai Airports is now at the detail design phase, where decisions must be made on Al Maktoum’s final configuration, operational philosophy, relationship with ground transport, customer service plan and retail strategy.

“There is a huge amount of work and detail design to be undertaken,” Mr Griffiths said. “We have our work cut out for us.”

Dubai International Airport (DXB), which is being expanded to handle 120 million passengers a year, will probably be shut down once the transition is completed in a decade to the new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International.

Passenger operations will move to Al Maktoum International “in phases”, leaving the new facility as the emirate’s sole mega-hub, Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths told The National yesterday.

The new airport, with five times the capacity of DXB, will also open opportunities to redevelop the prime real estate around the airport in Al Garhoud, he said.

“The way the city is growing is towards the south, so Dubai World Central (DWC) will be a very convenient and quick journey once all the road and rail networks are in place. It is quite probable that once the transition is complete, DXB will close to traffic and enable the redevelopment of the whole Al Garhoud area,” Mr Griffiths said.

DXB’s location at the centre of the city makes it difficult to expand further.

“There are tremendous opportunities for development in and around the existing airport. I cannot foresee that we will be operating it for very long. The idea of DWC is to get enough capacity to accommodate the future travel demand with an initial capacity of 150 million passengers and extending that to 260 million once all phases are completed,” Mr Griffiths said.

His comments came a day after Dubai approved designs for a new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International and began construction at a cost of Dh128 billion ($34.8 billion).

It also comes after DXB home carriers Emirates and flydubai announced massive multi-million dollar orders at the Dubai Airshow in November for wide-body aircraft that will require space to accommodate their growing fleet and their expansion plans.

Dubai had set out an earlier plan in 2014 for a $33 billion expansion of DWC in phases.

Revisiting the plan comes amid a surge in passenger traffic through DXB and as the airport edges closer to its maximum capacity amid higher travel demand.

Operator Dubai Airports is now in the detail design phase where decisions must be made on the hub’s final configuration, operational philosophy, relationship with ground transport, customer service plan, F&B and retail strategy.

“There is a huge amount of work and detail design to be undertaken … we have our work cut out for us,” Mr Griffiths said.

The operational testing of the massive infrastructure will require intensive efforts and proofing the entire construction.

“It is very complex. The volume and scale of what we envision is unprecedented,” Mr Griffiths said.

Mr Griffiths said it is “too early” to provide details about the awarding of contracts given the large volume of work to be done on the detail design

Transfer of operations from Dubai International Airport to Al Maktoum International will take place in phases

phase. “Once we’ve got the detailed design, then the packages can be let to the contractors,” he said.

Managing the transition of airlines operating at DXB to Al Maktoum International will be a “massive undertaking” and will probably unfold in phases, according to Mr Griffiths. “It will not be in one go. It will be something that we have to manage very carefully.”

Emirates, the world’s largest airline by international traffic, has a fleet of 260 aircraft and carried 43.6 million passengers in its last fiscal year.

Its sister airline flydubai’s fleet includes 86 aircraft and it carried 13.8 million passengers last year.

DXB is connected to 262 destinations across 104 countries through 102 airlines, according to its latest data.

DXB is already the world’s biggest airport by international passenger traffic, Mr Griffiths said.

“Inevitably this [transition] won’t be a quick or easy process. No airport move at this sort of scale has been undertaken,” he said.