New Dubai airport shows the vision still in sight
Anybody landing in the gleaming new hall-of-a-thousand columns that is the Dubai Airport’s Terminal Three might be forgiven for thinking that this must be the new airport that is being talked about at the Dubai Air Show.
But actually no, it is the opening next summer of the brand new Maktoum International Airport next to the Jebel Ali Free Zone that has tongues wagging.
Modest beginnings
Phase one is fairly modest with facilities for five million passengers and 600,000 tonnes of cargo each year. But the Maktoum International will scale up to become the largest airport in the world with a capacity of 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of freight.
The Vision of Dubai is all about thinking big and anticipating infrastructure demands. It is something that the rest of the region has often failed to do, leaving Dubai with a tremendous commercial advantage. But you always have to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Cities like Doha and Abu Dhabi are also now investing billions in new airports, but are playing catch up with Dubai’s Terminal Three. The Maktoum International is something different, the world’s first airport fully integrated with a major seaport.
It is also not being built on reclaimed land. Indeed the desert site allows for huge expansion in all directions and the building of a completely new 140-square kilometre city at Dubai World Central.
This is the most obviously commercially viable project that Dubai has presented in recent years. It takes a lot of imagination to see how the world’s biggest hotel could be filled in a desert location, or to see why a third palm island might bee needed when the first is not finished.
Clear vision
However, a greenfield or desert airport next to one of the world’s busiest ports in the heart of the Middle East. Now that has prospects. It is also a multi-phase project so that you do not have to build it out before there is a return on capital employed.
In truth, Dubai does seem to have learnt a few lessons from the real estate crash that followed the global financial crisis last autumn. There is now a far greater emphasis on project evaluation, prioritization and return-on-investment.
Local investors too are less likely to join in with the latest great idea. They need to see a solid business plan. For the Maktoum International Airport you still have to project high growth into the future and believe the result, but there is a clearly viable project to invest in.
