Dubai Airport to handle 200 million passengers by 2030
Dubai Airports has raised its passenger growth forecast for the year 2020 by 27.5 million, the organisation’s chief executive has revealed.
Speaking on day two of the Future of Borders International Conference yesterday, Paul Griffiths – CEO of Dubai Airports, which operates Dubai International and Al Maktoum International in Dubai World Central – said: “Our revised projections for 2020 now exceed 126 million passengers. By 2030, we expect to have around 200 million passengers traffic.”
The increase of its previous estimate of 98.5 million passengers comes after Dubai Airports recorded 70.4 million passengers in 2014, an increase of 6.1 per cent from the previous year. In 2015, the operator is expected to handle 79 million passengers.
Griffiths added: “And this [the growth projections] is without the availability of further infrastructure development or space to build at Dubai International. We will have to come up with other solutions to satisfy Dubai’s continued thirst for growth.”
Dubai International Airport is currently the world’s number one airport for international passengers and the sixth busiest for overall passenger numbers. The new Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai World Central (DWC) saw 845,046 passengers passing through its gates in its first full year of operations in 2014.
“In Dubai, we are building, not talking about building. An unwavering vision to build not just an airport but an engine of economic growth is vital to the growth of the city,” the CEO said, sharing figures to highlight the unprecedented growth.
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In 2013, aviation contributed $26.7 billion to the economy of Dubai, or 27 per cent of the emirate’s GDP. About 416,500 people in Dubai rely on the aviation sector for their jobs. By 2030, the industry’s contribution to Dubai’s economy will have increased to $88 billion, more than three times the 2013 figure.
“By then [2030] more than one in three of the workforce will be in an aviation-related job. And those jobs will be oriented around facilitating passenger journeys, using the latest technology and customer-enabling processes,” Griffiths said.
As many as 192,000 people come through the airport everyday on 980 flights. Concourse A, delivered in 2013, boosted the airport’s capacity to 75 million.
“But the passenger traffic is again approaching the capacity limit,” he said.
He continued: “Again we are delivering more infrastructure. The final piece of hitherto undeveloped infrastructure space within the airport is nearing completion. This year, we will open Concourse D, home to the airport’s overseas airline partners. The facility with 17 additional gates will be able to handle 15 million passengers and will be linked to Terminal 1 via Automated People Mover (APM).”
But the airports boss is convinced it is still not enough.
He explained: “Of course we need to keep pushing the upper limits of Dubai International capacity. Parallel developments of additional remote stands and airspace efficiency will help push out as far as possible the point at which it becomes ex-growth. Our $7.8 billion investment will lead to an ultimate capacity of 100 million. That takes into account the increased passenger-flight ratio driven by Emirates’ expanding fleet of A380s. But that, I’m afraid, is all the entire airfield will handle. So again, growth is pushing us to expand.”
Meanwhile, DWC will have a passenger capacity of 220 million on completion of its second phase. The first phase of $32 billion dollar expansion of DWC will enable the facility to accommodate 120 million passengers on completion over the next six-to-eight years. Al Maktoum International will be 10 times larger than the site of Dubai International, making it the world’s largest airport and the world’s largest intercontinental hub.