Plans have been revealed for Dubai International Airport (DXB) to be expanded and modernized in the coming years. Perhaps what’s most interesting about this is the implications for Dubai World Central Airport (DWC), which is Dubai’s second airport.
Continue reading: Dubai Airport (DXB) Plans Expansion & Refresh
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
DXB has reached a point of market maturity, if not even decline. A380 replacements mean an inevitable loss in capacity and slots at DXB are maxed out. Not moving to DWC is a confession of no plans to grow. Looking at the order book of Riyadh Air, Air India, EK will lose market share. Emiratis are fully aware of it. Not even sure if DXB will ever again reach the pax numbers of 2019. Hence, the low investment. Compared to DOH, BAH, MCT and the future midfield terminal at AUH, DXB offers the worst experience. I agree that terminal 1 (D gates) is cheap and no architectural delight. Yet, it's also the latest addition. DXB has shifted from expansion to economic optimization.
For all the hubris and sort of halo around Emirates (there is plenty of good but also plenty of not so good), DXB definitely needs a refresh and a makeover. It is definitely not bad, but it is really not the world class facility it could be, particularly when compared to its next closest competitor, DOH.
EK also needs a refresh beyond the new cabins they've been rolling out.
This is definitely a welcome announcement. I hope they can do something to make the lounges feel a bit more intimate and look less like they were designed in the 90s. They are perfectly decent, but going from the Qantas F lounge in Sydney and transiting in DXB using one of the many EK codeshares to mainland Europe, the lounges just a bit like a tacky cruiseship. Qatar's lounges are stunning, SQs are very good as well as CX's but EK definitely needs to commit to a solid makeover.
Problem is there are only two runways- with absolutely no option to build more.
I agree- this is a sign that they are not planning on or expecting to grow significantly in the next several years.
Part of the problem with the lounges is that they have such a huge load of Business class passengers (100+ A380s and 70+ J class seats per A380) that it's hard to create an exclusive feel. Qatar has a much smaller J to Y ratio and even their lounges can be choked at peak hours.
DWC is a failure. I looked up departures for today and it looks like about 10 total passenger flights and a bunch of cargo flights.
I flew out of DWC last year (World Cup shuttle flights used it). It's a perfectly fine airport but totally bland and nothing notable. How are the plans to extend the metro to the airport? I'm guessing those are stalled too.
As others have noted, I think Dubai overall has reached market maturity. There's little growth in demand.
Terminal 1 is my favourite terminal to fly out of. Perfectly pleasant.
Surely you mean Terminal 2 instead, which is akin to a moden black hole of Calcutta on a good day.
It seems there was an expectation that India would eventually increase or eliminate the seats per week limit which I would think a lot of future capacity estimates were based on. However protectionism has taken its toll and it appears the limit may remain as it is indefinitely. It’s a shame as emirates offers the Indian traveler an exponentially better travel experience than AI, it’s a really great place for a stopover to add a few days to a trip
I'll believe it when I see it. Arab mega projects are generally crap shoots that can easily be completed, or just as easily abandoned for the next shiny new thing.
Interesting statement. For sure there were projects in middle east that were never completed, but many more were finished. I think everyone should appreciate what UAE has achieved in the past few decades. Considering number of projects in Europe it is a disaster when even one is not finished. And all are overpaid and too lengthy to complete
How is it protectionism? UAE carriers still have dormant traffic rights to India, but due to their own insistence of maintaining separate BASAs from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah those can't be utilised from DXB. If Emirates wanted to operate from RKT to India, they could start tomorrow. So blame the UAE for choosing to structure their BASAs this way with India specifically, rather than blame India for not unilaterally granting more traffic rights to carriers from Dubai (while Indian carriers themselves are shut out from further growth at DXB).
Your reference to the black hole of Calcutta is really not necessary. Isn’t there any other example you can use instead of one that continues to promote the British Empire’s racist view of India?
DWC is not a viable alternative at the moment for an airline that depends on tourism and mid-upscale tourists: it's too far away from everything with no/limited public transportation connections. The government is doing a lot to upgrade the land DWC, such as building Expo 2020, Dubai South, Palm Jebel Ali, etc. Also, it will be close to the train station to Etihad rail, so it's expected that the Southern end of Dubai emirate will get a boost in demand in the next decade. Only then the airport might become valuable to Emirates, and that will take years. So understandably they'll use and upgrade DXB until that happens in the 2030s; but let's not expect any major customer impacts: the investments at DXB are mainly to ensure they can keep handling more demand, so largely behind the scenes. I don't think they'll invest much more in "optional design" or "making it beautiful" for just 10-15 years of use left.
"for just 10-15 years of use left"
Why would it be just 10-15yrs left?
While I know the land around Garhoud has gone up in value; unless something's changed recently, fairly certain that Dubai has never officially stated that they intend to close DXB, even if/once Emirates transitions to DWC.
"Your reference to the black hole of Calcutta is really not necessary."
....nor is you playing post-police.
They already exceeded the 2019 passenger numbers for the same period this year.
And had a 13% increase in the number of flights vs 2019.
Shifting airport operations to a new airport is a bold decision needing commitment. In this times of technology leap, spending long time evaluating options will put them back to square one. Look ahead at opportunity ahead, Dubai has to move with commitment to time, if not, world will c another apple beating Nokia.