Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Dubai World Central’s chairman, highlighted the significance of the new runway at its opening, in which he said the new runway “signals the advent of a new era in Dubai’s aviation and transportation history”.
The airport, named after the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the former ruler of Dubai, is being built on a total dedicated land area of almost twice the size of Hong Kong Island. It will be the main part of Dubai World Central (DWC), a planned residential, commercial and logistics complex scheme.
“Upon completion, it will be the world’s largest airport, bigger than London’s Heathrow and Chicago’s O’Hare combined,” says Michael Proffitt, CEO of Dubai Logistics City.
The first phase of the airport project will see its cargo terminal initially handle 700,000 tonnes of cargo per annum. By 2013 it is expected to become the largest of its kind in the tonnes of cargo annually.
At the heart of this huge new Al Maktoum International Airport, is a plan to make it the world’s largest passenger and cargo hub, 10 times larger than Dubai International Airport and Dubai Cargo Village combined.
If completed as planned, the airport will have up to 16 air cargo terminals of 30,000 sq m each for a total of 12 million tonnes of air cargo annually, more than three times that of Memphis International Airport, today’s largest cargo hub.
According to Mammut Building Systems (MBS), a subsidiary of Emaar Industries & Investments, it has completed construction of DWC’s Cargo Terminal in Jebel Ali early last year. MBS, as subcontractor to the Arabtec/Max Bögl joint venture, designed and constructed a 22,668 sq m structure for the airport.
“The sheer size of the airport and the amount of cargo it will deal with once completed highlights the magnitude of this project,” a MBS official says.
With infrastructure costs estimated at Dh8.99 billion (US$33 billion), DWC comprises six specialised clustered zones: Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai Logistics City (DLC), DWC Aviation City, DWC Commercial City, DWC Residential City and DWC Golf City.
A new concept of logistics
Dubai Logistics City is set to redefine regional logistics operations as a truly integrated multimodal logistics platform, with all transport modes, logistics and value added services, including manufacturing and assembly, in a single-bonded free zone environment, Proffitt says.
Spread over 21.5 sq km, DLC will take advantage of its proximity to the existing Jebel Ali port and free zone, making sea to air connectivity achievable in less than 4 hours.
Although construction of the Logistics City started last year, nearly 50 international firms have already jostled to reserve lots to build warehouses, including Swiss logistics giant Panalpina and 150 have reserved land, Proffitt says, adding that eventually, most firms with operations at the current Jebel Ali free zone will relocate to Logistics City.
Proffitt says the DLC will have a major impact on future air cargo growth. “The Middle East air cargo growth is the highest among all other regions in the world. DLC’s Phase One, which will start operations by the end of 2008, has already been leased out and every major global player has either expressed interest or leased land in DLC.
“More than 40 per cent of DLC’s 25 square kilometre leasable land has been reserved. The contract logistics and forwarding areas will be completed by 2010 and 2012 respectively.
“With Al Maktoum International Airport – fully operational by 2015 – DLC will become the central hub for global and regional businesses looking for centralised supply chain initiatives,” he says.
The first phase of DLC will be fully operational in mid-2009 when the first cargo flights are expected at Al Maktoum International Airport.
An ambitious project
Meanwhile, construction also started last year on the Dh5 billion DWC Aviation City, which is expected to house the world’s largest Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) centre as well as a heliport zone, an educational and academic zone, an industrial zone and a hub for aircraft component and parts supply. It is scheduled to start operations sometime this year.
“Although operations won’t be in full swing at Al Maktoum until 2015, parts of the project are already well underway. The first runway, aerial control tower and fuel tanks were finished last year and the first passenger flight is expected this year,” executives involved in the project say.
“Of the many tenders already awarded, over 30 have been specifically for the airport’s infrastructure and the rest spread over DWC’s real estate and logistics components,” a DWC official says.
Designed for the future, Al Maktoum International Airport proposes to handle all next-generation aircraft with up to four aircraft able to land simultaneously, 24 hours a day, minimising in-air queuing.
When completed, the airport will include, among others, 6 parallel runways, 4.5 kilometres in length, each separated by a distance of 800 metres.
The Al Maktoum International Airport will complement Dubai International Airport, some 40km away.
Due to the massive physical scale of the masterplan, others would come to claim that Al Maktoum International Airport would be the most ambitious airport project ever envisioned. The latest estimates by the government of Dubai peg the price tag at US$82 billion. As at December 2007, DWC said that the construction of the airport was approximately US$75 million.