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Dubai: As chief executive of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths has a central role in ensuring smooth and efficient functioning of the aviation infrastructure in the emirate. When flights start at Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali next year, one of his tasks will be to oversee its growth into the world's largest aviation hub.
Before moving to Dubai in October last year to become the first CEO of the newly created company, Griffiths was managing director of London's Gatwick Airport. Prior to joining the British airport operator BAA in 2004, he spent 14 years with the Virgin Group, working closely with Sir Richard Branson as a board director of Virgin Travel Group, which comprised the activities of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains.
In the 1980s Griffiths spent four years in Hong Kong, developing various activities of the then start-up airline Dragonair.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, he talks about Dubai's transformation as a global aviation hub.
Gulf News: What facilities are being built at Dubai International Airport, and what is it going to look like in the future?
Paul Griffiths: We are aiming to double the annual capacity from the current 34 million passengers to about 70 million in five years. We are going to open Terminal 3 and Concourse 2. Concourse 3 will follow immediately thereafter; construction is under way.
By the end of this decade we will have more aircraft stands, we will improve the road system and we will be connected with the rail, which is an exciting development for the airport. So there is a lot going on that will make the airport cope with expansion and also increase the quality of service.
When will you open Terminal 3?
We are in good shape with Terminal 3. Things are coming along very well. It is a million square metres of space, which is nearly double the size of Heathrow Terminal 5. We are making sure that everything is working, specifications are right, the people are properly trained and familiar with the building.
Progressively through the summer we are going to increase the level of training that we are doing on the whole baggage system and check-in process. We are going to announce an opening date as soon as we are confident that all the systems, processes and people are ready.
What is happening in the run-up to opening the new terminal?
The contractors are putting finishing touches to the fabric of the building, all the restaurants are being fitted out, police are checking all the security elements of the building. We are going to test every IT system to make sure that everything is working fine.
We will be putting out a specific campaign asking for volunteers [to act as dummy passengers]. Our aim is to put thousands of pretend passengers through the terminal to test everything. We would like people to check in bags, go through the whole terminal process, then the connection process and then go through the arrival process and then do it all over again. We want to make absolutely sure that everything is working.
What will happen to Dubai's existing airport when the airport at Jebel Ali is ready?
We do not have to make that decision now. The aim is to gradually bring Al Maktoum International Airport into service and reach full operating capability by the middle of the next decade. That will give us a long time to decide the future of Dubai International. It could operate as a regional airport or it could operate in harmony with the new airport as secondary hub, or we may decide there are other plans for it.
With so much infrastructure being built, do you think there will be enough passenger numbers to justify such huge investment?
With the number of nations that are suffering socially and economically because infrastructure has not been established and developed in an appropriate way, I think there is a huge case for doing exactly what Dubai is doing.
Dubai has this wonderful view of what success looks like. Economic success of Dubai as a hub is only going to grow. I feel we will not turn around and say we have developed too much infrastructure.
I am also confident to make that statement because if you look around the world you will probably find hundreds of countries, airport operators and cities that wish they had expanded their infrastructure. You will not find a single airport operator, city or country saying: "We wish we had not developed so much capacity."
But in Dubai you are looking at such a huge capacity of 150 million passengers a year. The UAE's own population is small and then there are so many airports in a small area.
It is not just about visitor numbers to and from Dubai. The success of Dubai as an intercontinental hub has been facilitated by airlines such as Emirates. The geocentric nature of Dubai has become incredibly important. Now there are hardly two points on the globe where it is not logical or possible to use Dubai and connect any two cities, and usually it is a pretty direct route.
It is this geocentric nature of Dubai we believe would provide the vast majority of traffic growth. By the middle of next decade we anticipate that about 70 per cent of the traffic at Dubai World Central will be transit traffic, and that is a great opportunity.
There must be challenges in developing something so big. What challenges do you foresee later?
An airport of this scale has not been built before. Dubai is the only place in the world where you can make these things happen, whether you look at the Burj Al Arab or Burj Dubai, all sorts of iconic buildings that are breaking new grounds in terms of innovation, size and scale. It is only fitting and right that the world's largest airport should find its home here.
Is there any further investment planned at Dubai airport?
There will be undoubtedly more investment in aircraft stands and some other terminal facilities. Those are more immediate than investment in Dubai World Central. Those are fairly recent thoughts; we have not developed them into budgets or even feasibility studies.
In some cases, you are not able to accommodate airlines that want to fly to Dubai.
That is not quite true. We are able to still accommodate a lot of requests for flights where there is a bilateral agreement between Dubai and the origin country. We are making sure that we are continually adding capacity to enable that growth. This is why investment in airport infrastructure is so important. Dubai does not want to put itself in a position where it is turning people away because of a lack of infrastructure.
Earlier it was reported that Jebel Ali will have a low-cost airline terminal. What is the current situation?
We are talking to a number of airlines who want to operate at the new airport. Our response is that we are building a terminal for seven million passengers, and we expect that to be operational during 2009.
I am sure the first people that would be using that new terminal are going to be regional carriers, most of whom operate on a low-cost basis. As with everything that we do, we will respond flexibly to the needs of our customer airlines. There are all sorts of options we have at the current airport and at the new airport. If there is a demand for a particular style of terminal that needs to be developed or modified, then of course we will look into that.
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