Dubai Air Show to Move to New Jebel Ali Airport in 2009
Dubai’s International Air Show will make a move in 2009 to the new Jebel Ali International Airport — the first phase of a six-runway, 137-square-kilometer giant capable of handling 180 million passengers per year, the equivalent of two Chicago O’Hare Airports. “We don’t decide the limits of the facility,” says HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, president of Dubai’s Department of Civil Aviation and chairman of the Emirates group. “We always believe that supply should come before demand, to make it convenient for the airlines. What we do is go the way that Dubai is going.”
Dubai is already investing $4.1 billion in the next expansion of the existing airport, to be ready by the first quarter of 2007. It will expand the existing airport’s capacity threefold, to 75 million passengers a year, says Sheik Ahmed, who describes it with some understatement as “a nice facility.” The centerpiece of the expansion is a new concourse with 20 two-level A380 gates. “We want to be one of the biggest airports worldwide with the A380, because we (Emirates) will have 45 of them and may have 20 on the ground at one time.” It will include a 300-room hotel inside the concourse, with three- and five-star rooms, and 10,000 square meters of shopping.
The airport’s role as a hub continues to develop. “We have added a lot of traffic since we have scheduled flights to New York,” says Sheik Ahmed. New York traffic arrives at Dubai and continues both to other intercontinental destinations in Asia or to airports in the region.
The Jebel Ali project, 40 km from the existing airport, will open first for cargo and business aviation. The existing airport is expected to be full by 2015—Dubai had 6.5 million hotel guests in 2004 and expects 15 million by 2010. “We can’t tell airlines that they can’t come here any more,” says Sheik Ahmed. “We see new airlines coming into Jebel Ali and building up their own hubs.” —Bill Sweetman
