Dubai already has the fastest growing airport in West Asia, handling over 28 million passengers in 2006, but the booming emirate is building another one, the world's largest.
DUBAI: Dubai already has the fastest growing airport in West Asia, handling over 28 million passengers in 2006, but the booming emirate is on course to build another one, the world's largest.
In the vast desert stretching east of Jebel Ali port and free zone, one runway is nearly finished. So far it remains the only visible infrastructure of the Dubai World Central International Airport (JXB), whose target is to handle 120 million passengers a year when completed.
Five more runways are to follow, with the airport due to be in operation by the end of 2008.
Hundreds of construction vehicles and thousands of labourers are working non-stop to meet this deadline for the first phase.
"Once the work is complete, this airport will be larger than any airport we know," said Khalifa al-Zafeen, chief engineer in Dubai's aviation authority.
The airport is part of the Dubai World Central (DWC) mega-project, which is expected to cover 140 square kilometers (87 square miles) and feature a regional logistics hub, in addition to commercial and residential areas.
As a cargo hub, the new airport is also expected to be the world's biggest, with a capacity to handle 12 million tonnes annually.
Total infrastructure costs are estimated to reach a whopping 33 billion dollars. Zafeen said the construction will employ between 20,000 and 30,000 workers at peak time, but he declined to disclose a deadline for the completion of the whole project.
The new airport is not intended to replace the older aviation hub, the most modern airport in West Asia, that is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the new development and a few minutes drive from the city centre.
The fast growing city state of Dubai continues to pump cash into developing its existing airport, with a third terminal expected to open by the end of 2007, aiming to increase the number of passengers to 60 million in 2010.
In 2006, the number of passengers rose 16 per cent to 28.7 million from 24.7 million in 2005. Freight rose 5.85 per cent to 1,410 million tonnes from 1,333 tonnes in 2005.
The Gulf emirate of about 1.3 million people has embarked on a strategy of headlong expansion under the ruling Maktoum family, committing billions of dollars to hugely ambitious projects.
In just 25 years, a sleepy pearl and trading outpost has been transformed into a dynamic regional economic and tourist power with world-class infrastructure.
Although the Jebel Ali free zone itself seemed a few years back to be sandwiched between the Gulf and an empty desert, Dubai's construction frenzy has now brought residential and commercial areas to the edge of the zone.
DWC is tapping into the real estate hyper expansion by developing a commercial city next to the new airport, featuring 850 towers and expected to employ 130,000 people.
It will also boast a residential city which is expected to house up to 250,000 people.
Like most of the developments in Dubai, which is deprived of natural water resources, DWC will feature two 18-hole golf courses.
A total of 113 airlines now offer flights from Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, to 160 destinations around the world.
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