Dubai keeps growing

Growth is pushing Dubai Airports, operator of Dubai International and Al Maktoum International in Dubai World Central, to expand.

Earlier this year Dubai Airports revised its projections saying it expected to exceed 126 million passengers by 2020 and by 2030, it expects to have around 200 million passengers traffic.

Dubai International is currently the world’s number one airport for international passengers and the sixth busiest.

Al Maktoum International Airport in DWC, which presently has five to seven million passengers capacity, saw 845,046 passengers passing through its gates in its first full year of operations in 2014.

Number crunching

DWC will have a passenger capacity of 220 million on completion of its second phase.

The first phase of $32 billion dollar expansion of DWC, approved by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of UAE and ruler of Dubai late last year, will enable the facility to accommodate 120 million passengers on completion over the next six to eight years.

Situated on a 140 sq. km site to the south of Dubai, Al Maktoum International will be 10 times larger than the site of Dubai International, making it the world’s largest airport and the world’s largest intercontinental hub.

The $7.8 billion investment will to lead to ultimate capacity of 100 million passengers at the Dubai International. Last year, it recorded 70.4 million passengers, an increase of 6.1 per cent and this year expected to handle 79 million passengers.

Dubai Aiports CEO Paul Griffiths has said that the design challenges are focused on four key areas - passenger experience, airline product, airport processes and facilities.

Smartworld

Dubai Airports is raising the bar with smart flight information display (FID) systems and video walls at its three terminals, in collaboration with Smartworld, a joint venture between Etisalat and Dubai World Central.

Wesam Jammoul, senior director, Digital Implementation Services, Smartworld, says: "Our solutions have been designed to meet the present day demands and requirements for advanced and cutting-edge information and communications technology for the region’s rapidly growing aviation segment. We are proud to be associated with Dubai International’s impressive growth and Dubai Airports’ desire to provide the best solutions in terms of technology, interoperability and integration with existing system."

Jammoul said rapidly changing technology implies a dynamic demand scenario. Customers are more focused on solutions rather than a single brand. Customised solutions hence become all the more important, he explains. Smartworld has worked with Dubai Airports and other partners to create vendor-independent environment solution with open and standard protocols. This solution provides full freedom to choose the best breed vendors.

Talking about the challenges, he said providing 24x7 onsite support services, especially FIDS across the airport including arrivals, departures, check-in, boarding gates, arrivals, VIP lounges and other areas, meant the system needed to be fool-proof with no room for errors. "Even if one screen is down, it could affect flight operations. Similarly, we had to ensure that the database head end was not impacted at all," he remarks.