Dubai Intl Airport In $7.8B Expansion; To Handle 90M Passengers

Wednesday, Jul 06, 2011

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Dubai will spend $7.8 billion on expanding its existing Dubai International Airport, or DIA, to handle rapidly-rising passenger traffic, while at the same time moving ahead with separate plans to complete its mega Al Maktoum International airport, the emirate's top airport official said Wednesday.

"The new programme will boost DIA's capacity from 60 million to 90 million passengers per year by 2018," said Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

Griffiths said the expansion plans include aviation infrastructure that will support the sector's growth to account for "22% of total employment and 32% of the emirate's GDP by 2020."

The expansion plans will extend over a decade, Griffiths said, and the enhancements lead to "robust revenue stream (that) will fund the development of Dubai World Central in the long term."

Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International, the new airport under construction at Jebel Ali in the emirate, will open its passenger terminal for private and corporate jets in 2012.

Griffiths added that "by 2020, 98.5 million passengers and over 4 million tonnes of air freight will pass through our airports."

-By Leila Hatoum, Dow Jones Newswires; +971-4-446-1686; leila.hatoum@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-07-11 0801GMT