Al Maktoum airport to offer incentives

Dubai airports will offer 'financial incentives' to airlines – both passenger and freighter – to launch operations from the new Al Maktoum International Airport, due to open for business late next month, according to a top Dubai Airports executive.

"We have been talking to our partners and stakeholders about assisting us in providing a better economic environment. Generally, when you get a new airport up and off the ground, you have to do these things to encourage people to go there," Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive of Dubai airports, told Emirates Business on the sidelines of the 17th Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which opened yesterday.

He said that it is "because a number of our airline customers are very comfortable at Dubai International Airport (DIA). And what we are trying to do is give them a real reason to go to Al Maktoum International airport in phase one". When asked on how many airlines are expected to start operating from the new airport in the first month of the airport's opening, Griffiths said: "We are in negotiations with a very significant number. I can't confirm the exact number that we are going to go in with. We would be announcing that as soon as we are ready.

"The Al Maktoum International airport, which will open in June with freighter operations, currently does not have any customer commitments.

"We are very close to having customer commitments. I cannot tell you anything more at this point," Griffiths said.

Dubai airports also yesterday released its forecast for cargo traffic at DIA and Al Maktoum that projects freight volumes will balloon 48 per cent over the next five years. It said that the cargo tonnage, which totalled 1.9 million in 2009, will exceed three million tonnes by the end of 2015. In 2010, freight volumes are expected to rise 12.2 per cent. Dubai International currently has a capacity for 2.5 million tonnes of freight per annum.

The first phase of DWC-Al Maktoum International, which opens for cargo airlines this summer, will feature a single A380 compatible runway, 64 remote stands, a cargo terminal building capable of handling 250,000 tonnes per annum expandable to 600,000 tonnes per annum and a dedicated road link to the port in Jebel Ali.

Al Maktoum airport to open in june

Al Maktoum International Airport will open in June for cargo only, with plans to receive passengers next year, Dubai airports chief said yesterday.

“Dubai will no longer be a single airport city,” said CEO Paul Griffiths.

He set June 27 as the date for the start of operations.

He said that the passenger terminal is scheduled to be ready by the end of the year and that it will enter service at the beginning of the summer season in 2011, towards “the end of March”.

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