Dubai's new international airport - Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International (DWC-AMI) is on course to open in June 2010.
The new airport is part of Dubai World Central (DWC) - a 140-square-kilometre aviation and logistics city in Jebel Ali. Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports Company, which has the mandate to operate both Dubai International and Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International (DWC-AMI), has confirmed that phase one of the DWC-AMI will be open by June 2010, despite rumours of further delays.
"As we are expanding capacity within the Dubai International, the pressure to open DWC-AMIA is less," he says "But the new airport will open in June 2010 with the first runway and terminal and will be able to handle nine million passengers. We expect that airport initially to take some of the heat out of the peak traffic out of Dubai International (DIA). Initially it will handle some of the general aviation, some of the executive aviation, some of the cargo flights and some of the passenger aircraft, but because of our very liberal open skies policy we are optimistic that it will attract new carriers who will want to establish new operations and we are optimistic we will get some low cost operators in there."
The second phase of DWC-AMI will include four more runways with the airport eventually taking up to 160 million passengers and 40 million tonnes of freight.
"We are also simultaneously investing in the capacity of Dubai International with the aim of creating enough capacity to make sure we don’t run out."
Griffiths refused to be drawn about the eventual fate of Dubai International once Al Maktoum is fully open.
"We don’t need to make a decision about the 240 million spread [of passengers] right now, though it's an interesting discussion," he said "There will be a role for both airports, but whether we continue with two airports forever is not something we need to decide now."
Dubai Aviation City Corporation incorporates both Dubai World Central and Dubai Airports Company.
Meanwhile, Dubai Logistics City (DLC) has begun licensing completed warehouses and logistics offices and handing over facilities to tenants to commence operations on-site.
Below is an image of the airport's completed control tower. For more information visit dwc.ae.
