New Dubai airport to open June 27th for cargo only
Posted on 24 March 2010 with no comments from readers
The first runway of the new Al Maktoum International Airport, near to Dubai’s massive Jebel Ali Free Zone, will open on June 27th for cargo planes only and will have an initial capacity of 250,000 tonnes.
This is the first phase in the creation of what will ultimately be the world’s largest airport, and understandably in the circumstances of the Dubai real estate crash the project is now moving ahead more slowly than before the crisis.
Big ambitions
Cargo capacity will be expanded to 600,000 tonnes as a first step. But this is part of the $33 billion Dubai World Central development and the full airport will handle 160 million passengers per annum and 12 million tonnes of cargo from 18 cargo terminals.
Between 2022 and 2030 the Maktoum International is planned to become the new hub for Emirates Airline. The existing Dubai International Airport is being expanded to handle 90 million passengers. But room to expand on the site is limited. Last year the airport handled 41 million passengers.
The Jebel Ali airport site has actually been earmarked for a couple of decades. Its position next to one of the world’s largest container ports is ideal for cargo transfers.
Clearly the phasing of this greenfield, actually sandy desert, development will depend on the pace of expansion of the aviation sector in Dubai, and any constraints placed on it by the availability of credit and the growth of global travel.
Past precedent
But ArabianMoney can recall when Dubai airport handled less than 10 million passengers, and articles then scoffed at the idea of a 30 million target. Dubai has always planned into the future and used a high-return business model based on zero-cost land, low-cost labour and state-of-the-art technology.
It would be foolish to think that what has worked in the past will not deliver results in the future. Recessions and debt crises come and go. The right business in the right place at the right time will always succeed.
Of all the mega projects to emerge from the boom of the 2000s actually the Maktoum International Airport is probably the most economically viable and will be the biggest success in the long-term, just like the Jebel Ali seaport that it so conveniently serves.
