Dubai International Airport unveiled a US$4.5 billion (Dh16.52bn) temple for global travellers yesterday, spread over 1.5 million square metres of glass, marble and chrome. With the new Terminal 3 (T3) and Concourse 2, the airport will be able to handle 60 million passengers annually, a target it is projected to reach within three years.
From Tuesday, T3 opens in phases and will eventually handle 17,000 passengers at any given time. Emirates Airline will move its entire daily schedule of 250 flights over to the new terminal by December. The city of superlatives can now lay claim to one more. T3 is also the world's largest airport terminal building, beating Beijing's third terminal, which was built for the summer Olympics. The new concourse for first and business class travellers features 2,000 seats across two lounges, and is bigger than many entire airports in the Middle East.
Dubai Duty Free has built more than 10,000sq/m of shops selling gold, watches and jewellery. Construction delays pushed the new terminal and concourse back by two years, putting a strain on the airport's largest and fastest-growing customer, Emirates. However, the setback coincided with a two-year delay in delivery of the Airbus A380 superjumbo to the airline. The new terminal has high ceilings, white walls and marble floors. Skylights give the concourse a light and airy feel, helping to sustain two garden areas featuring ferns and palm trees.
To improve the flow of passengers, the airport has removed the initial screening stage from the security process. "We wanted to give passengers a feeling of serenity and tranquillity, which is what I think most people are looking for when they travel," said Anita Homayoun, the director of marketing and corporate communications at Dubai Airports, which manages the facility. Dubai's multibillion-dollar investment is part of a strategic bet on aviation. With the Gulf sitting at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, the airport and Emirates Airline have enjoyed record growth in recent years. Dubai airport expects to handle almost 40 million passengers this year, up from 34 million last year.
A third concourse, due for completion in 2011, will boost capacity to 75 million passengers a year. However, in 2015, it could be overshadowed by the construction of Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali. That airport is expected to cost $32bn and process up to 160 million passengers per year when it is finished by 2020. Officials have given no indication about what will happen at Dubai International Airport when Al Maktoum is fully operational.
Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar are all launching multi-billion dollar airport projects, each with an eye to establishing global hubs. Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, disavowed any notion of taking a more cautious development approach in light of the brewing global financial crisis. "This is no time to blink," he said. Airport projects need to plan spending based on a 15 to 20-year outlook, he said, and by then he believes the current market troubles will have come and gone.
Also, the Dubai airport is financing the costly expansion projects alone and does not need to tap into the ailing global credit markets. "This is a very long-term game," Mr Griffiths said. Dubai officials said they have been mindful to avoid joining the list of new airport openings involving major glitches. London Heathrow's Terminal 5 suffered hundreds of cancelled flights and thousands of bags lost in its opening days in March. In 1998, frozen fish and other perishable cargo rotted on the asphalt during the chaotic opening of Hong Kong International Airport.
A roof collapsed during the opening of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in 2004, while in 2006, passengers became irate when they were sent to the wrong boarding gates during the opening of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. With T3 in Dubai, three intensive trial runs, each involving thousands of volunteer "travellers", were conducted to ensure the facilities and almost 1,000 staff will be ready for the real thing, said Mr Griffiths.
"We've rewritten the book on the whole process," he said. igale@thenational.ae
