Dubai Airports Strategic Plan 2020

Dubai Airports announced a US$7.8 billion (28.8 billion AED) airport and airspace expansion programme which will boost capacity at Dubai International from 60 million to 90 million passengers per year by 2018.

Designed to deliver aviation infrastructure which will support the continuation of the sector’s impressive growth, facilitate Dubai’s economic expansion and generate an estimated 22 per cent of total employment and 32 per cent of the emirate’s GDP by 2020.

The SP2020 responds to a ten year traffic forecast for Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC) that projects international passenger and cargo traffic will increase at an average annual growth rate of 7.2 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

Quick Facts

• The number of stands will be increased by 60 per cent – from 144 to 230

• Cargo growth from 2.2 million tonnes (2010) to 4.1 million tonnes by 2020

• The plan involves also the construction of additional terminal space and concourse areas comprising an extra 675,000sqm of floor space – twice the footprint of London Heathrow Terminal 5.

• Facilities that will be built or undergo expansion include Terminal 2 (by 2013), Concourse 4 development (by 2015) - connected to Terminal 1 to facilitate check-in and baggage servicing.

• DWC passenger terminal building arrivals (PTB) expansion (2018)

• 30,000 sqm additional cargo processing capacity at DXB’s cargo mega terminal.

• Airspace expansion plans will focus on optimising runway capacity and implementing efficient systems and processes.

• Dubai Airports is also engaging national and regional civil aviation authorities and air navigation service providers to ensure decongestion of air routes, minimising bottlenecks and unlocking potential airspace capacity.

·        Next generation technology such as performance based navigation and dynamic airspace management will be deployed over the coming years to harness the capabilities of modern fleets and increase airspace capacity.

Read the full SP2020 document.

Read Oxford Economics Report on Dubai aviation’s contribution to the economy.