Why growing is not a pain at Dubai International

As Dubai International Airport's Concourse 3 prepares for a grand opening, Keith Mwanalushi reports that it is just one part of numerous strategies being put in motion to achieve ambitious goals at the region's busiest airport.

 If projections by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority are right, passenger throughput at Dubai’s airports should reach a staggering 98.5 million with more than four million tonnes of freight also being moved by 2020.

Back in 2008 the Dubai Airports Company turned heads with a flawless opening of Dubai International (DXB) Terminal 3, built exclusively for use by flag carrier Emirates.

The airport authority will no doubt be planning another flawless opening of its latest addition to DXB in the form of concourse 3 (C3), which is on track for completion at the end of this year.

“Concourse 3 will be opened to the public in the first quarter of 2013 once we are completely satisfied that it has passed all operational and service readiness tests with flying colours,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports at the Arabian Travel Market event in Dubai earlier this year. 

Over the last few months the facility has been undergoing an intensive operational readiness programme (ORAT) to prepare for the official opening. It has included other key stakeholders, notably Emirates, dnata, police and the immigration services.

“Over the last few months, our preparatory work moved into high gear. We learned a lot from our experience with Terminal 3,” said Griffiths. “We learned that the big bang theory is not the best approach when it comes to opening an airport… soft launches following rigorous testing and operational trials are the only way to go.”

The AED 12bn ($3.2bn) C3 will solely cater for Emirates Airlines. It is now the world’s first purpose-built A380 facility and will have a capacity for 19 million passengers a year pushing international travellers at DXB to 75 million.

The new concourse is spread over 500,000sqm through 11 levels featuring 20 contacts gates and 13 remote stands.

Dubai Airports indicate that C3 is very similar to concourse 2 in terms of appearance but with a smaller footprint. Technically the C3 project is an extension and continued development of concourses 1 and 2.

It is a fully airside structure and is connected to the two major public levels of Concourse 2 and Terminal 3 via an automated people mover (APM), in addition to the vehicular and baggage handling system utility tunnels.

C3 is partially underground, comprising the APM stations (both arriving and departing) and, like C2, the lower and upper levels are connected by means of a special vertical transportation system (sky trains) that acts as a focal point feature in a central atrium.

While the arrival and departure levels are similar to Concourse 2, the first and business class levels are further split up and are located one above the other, below the hotel level, which also includes a health club and a business centre. The hotel will feature both four- and five-star operations.

Travelex won the tender to operate foreign exchange at C3. The company will operate the only stand-alone bureau de change at the new facility, in the airside departures area. Travelex director of business development Graham Flannery said the outlet would feature “cutting edge design and technology to provide an exceptional customer experience”.

He added: “The Middle East is one of the most rapidly growing regions for our business and Dubai, in particular, has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate outstanding growth. We are working on an innovative store concept, which will allow us to provide a more interactive customer journey as well as utilising new technology and self-service functionality.”

Key to the expansion strategy by Emirates is to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place to support growth, as Tim Clark, president at Emirates explained. “As the largest operator of A380s in the world, having a dedicated concourse that is built to exclusively accommodate this aircraft will transform the airport experience. It will mean an improved airport service, world class shopping and the first class and business class facilities for which Emirates is known and respected.

“We have had a very busy few months and together with Dubai Airports we continue our preparations for the opening and look forward to welcoming our first passengers to the new concourse in early 2013.”

As the C3 project nears completion, work has already begun on phase one of the U$7.8 billion strategic plan 2020, which will boost Dubai International’s annual capacity to 98 million passengers by 2020 through several airport and airspace expansion projects.

As part of the plan, work to expand Terminal 2 to almost double its existing capacity continues apace, with construction well under way on the new check-in facilities. Design work for the new Concourse 4, which will be dedicated to more than 110 international airlines, is also under way. 

Current figures indicate that Dubai Airports’ ambitious goals might just be achievable. For instance, during the first eight months of this year passenger traffic rose to 37.78 million, up by 13.4% compared to the previous year.

As C3 comes online, DXB will also begin full operations of its new smart e-Gate system at Terminal 3 from early January 2013. The new system is intended to allow passengers to quickly check in and out through passport control.

According to the airport, the new system is capable of rapidly collecting passport information and capturing biometric data through a camera, after which it can compare the data with current records for any discrepancies.

Surface surveillance and other safety and security measures continue to be at the top of the agenda at most airport conferences and, as such, in June this year, Saab Sensis deployed its new surface multilateration system at the airport, the first application of the technology at DXB.

According to Saab Sensis, the multilateration system uses multiple low-maintenance, non-rotating sensors to triangulate aircraft location based on transponder signals, providing air traffic controllers with precise aircraft position and identification information regardless of weather conditions.

Ken Kaminski, senior vice president and general manager at Saab Sensis explained that with a higher update rate and greater positional accuracy than traditional radar, the multilateration delivers effective surveillance for increased safety, capacity and efficiency of airspace and surface operations. He said by employing advanced processing techniques, a Saab Sensis multilateration system uses the minimal number of sensors for a less complex, lower lifecycle cost solution.

“Multilateration is a key component of an advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS), as it provides continually updated, all-weather surveillance. Saab Sensis multilateration, as is being used at Dubai International Airport, also supports automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) for a system that works with today’s equipage and is ready for tomorrow’s avionics,” said Kaminski.

He added that another benefit of the system is the ability to adapt and grow as the airport changes and be expanded into a wide-area multilateration configuration for precision runway monitoring (PRM) or terminal airspace surveillance. “As with our systems being deployed in Saudi Arabia, multilateration is also a prime source of surveillance data for airport surface operations systems, such as Aerobahn. In addition to DXB, Saab Sensis is becoming the multilateration provider of choice in the Middle East with our technology being deployed at King Abdulaziz, King Fahad and Doha airports.”

The airport’s cargo facilities are also set to undergo a major modernisation and expansion programme as part of the overall growth strategy that will see airfreight capacity increased to more than three million tonnes by 2018.

Based on the 2020 plan, construction will begin in the next few months on a 30,000sqm extension to the current Cargo Mega Terminal, increasing its annual capacity by 25% to 1.5 million tonnes. 

Griffiths said Dubai Airports’ total cargo volumes are expected to top four million tonnes by 2020 and an increasing portion of that growth is expected to spill-over to Dubai World Central (DWC) “The new infrastructure will not only increase our capacity but go a long way to simplifying what has become an increasingly complex cargo operation as the airport has grown,” he added.

Cargo facilities Hall A and Freight Gate 1, next door, will get a complete refurbishment and then be dedicated for the sole use of Emirates SkyCargo – an operation that is becoming increasingly busy. From September 2012 the cargo carrier introduced a weekly 777-F service between Dubai, Japan and Korea.

The company will also add 14 tonnes of freight per flight between South Australia and Dubai with the launch of four weekly flights to Adelaide from November 2012. The additional 56 tonnes will take the weekly capacity to and from Australia to 1500 tonnes and Emirates SkyCargo’s capacity will further increase from March 2013, when the number of services operating from Dubai to Australia rises to 84 per week.

A new transhipment facility, with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes, will handle about 60% of the cargo transferred between DXB and DWC. The new facility will be built on the former site of the Airport Expo building, which was partially demolished earlier this year.

Construction of the new facilities is expected, according to the airport, to take place in several stages to ensure the day-to-day working of the airport is not disrupted.