Dubai has high expectations for its aviation industry: With the current airport to see a new terminal in a year, and a new dedicated LCC terminal set to launch, Dubai Airports expects 100 million passengers by 2020.

In the immediate future, Dubai International Airport is looking to fully launch Terminal 3 by the end of 2008.  This terminal will be wholly dedicated to Emirates, freeing up the other terminals for other carriers.

The new Emirates terminal is set to open in September, with the majority of the concourse to be built underground.  This expansion plan alone will cost a total of US$6 billion.

Terminal 3 will not be made redundant with the launch of the second Dubai airport, Dubai World Central Airport or Al Maktoum International Airport (JXB), set to be ten times bigger than the current Dubai airport.

Sitting on 140km², the site will be a mixed-use suburb, with residential areas, commercial areas and a logistics center; the new airport is set to become the biggest in the world when it opens in 2013.

To be linked with the existing airport by a high speed rail connection, the two airports will be 20 minutes apart.

The new airport at JXB will feature six parallel runways, capable of handling four aircraft landing simultaneously, with the concourse in the middle of the runways.

One runway has already been completed. The low-cost carrier terminal is almost ready to open, and is expected to be operational by next year.

Altogether the Dubai World Central complex will cost US$43 billion to develop.

Source: etravelblackboard.com