Dubai plans Terminal 4
While the world's premier financial institutions and banking majors may have crash landed on the back of a global economic meltdown, Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dubai Airports, was in take-off mode as far as airport expansion plans go.
Speaking to a business gathering at Capitol Club, Dubai International Financial Centre yesterday, Griffiths drew out the vision for Dubai Airports, putting some serious number crunching into context, by underlining that the airport business is always "a long-term business investment".
On the Dubai Airports' radar for the near future is a Terminal 4 to go with terminals 1, 2 and 3, apart from more extensions to the latter.
"It won't come as a surprise to know that not only have we got concourse three rising out of the ground already, but we are already planning Terminal 4," Griffith said.
"We have Dh290 million that will be spent over the next two years on terminals 1, 2 and 3, making sure they are running to full capacity," Griffiths said, adding, "We aim to service at least 70 to 80 million people per year."
About Dubai World Central's place in all this expansion, Griffith said Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central in Jebel Ali "which will start operations in June 2009, would only take cargo initially and then by October would start taking passengers. Then too, it would only service about eight-nine million passengers in its initial years."
Griffith said a business intelligence group is examining the market dynamics for both airports to aid planning and forecasting that in turn will have implications for future capacity and development of core facilities to handle growth.
