Business | Aviation
15% of Emirates flights go to Terminal 3
With the announcement of the phased opening of Terminal 3 from October 14, the spotlight has now turned firmly on Emirates' much-anticipated move to its dedicated new home in Dubai.
- By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter
- Published: 15:08 September 4, 2008
- The first Emirates flight to take off from the new terminal will be the Doha-bound EK843, using an Airbus A330-200. Dubai Airports announced recently that Terminal 3 will be operational on October 14.
- Image Credit: Supplied picture
Dubai: Emirates said on Thursday it will shift 15 per cent of its operations to Terminal 3 when the new facility at Dubai International Airport (DIA) opens next month, a move that will free up more space for other carriers at the congested Terminal 1.
The first Emirates flight to take off from the new terminal will be the Doha-bound EK843, using an Airbus A330-200.
Dubai Airports, the company responsible for managing airport facilities in the emirate, announced recently that Terminal 3 will be operational on October 14.
It is being opened to full capacity use in phases to avoid the kind of fiasco witnessed at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 when baggage system failed and scores of flights were cancelled.
In the beginning, Emirates will move all its GCC and Americas services, or 40 flights a day, accounting for 15 per cent of the airline's operations, to T3.
In the second phase, flights to the rest of the Middle East and Africa will be moved to the new facility. This will take the number of services to 99 daily flights or 37 per cent of all flights.
Services to Europe will be moved in the next phase, taking operations to 168 daily flights or 60 per cent of all Emirates' services. The fourth and final phase will cover flights to South Asia, East Asia and Australasia and bring the total to 269 flights every day, Emirates said in a statement.
Terminal 3, part of the $4.5-billion DIA expansion, has been built for exclusive use by Emirates and has five gates to handle the A380 superjumbo.
"Emirates is poised to spread its wings even further afield globally, and our dedicated terminal will be the perfect launch pad for escalating our growth," said Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group.He said October 14 will mark "another red-letter day on the Emirates calendar."
DIA is currently used by 123 airlines and links Dubai with 210 destinations.
Terminal 1 expects to handle 40 million passengers this year compared with about 34 million in 2007.
Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths told Gulf News that with Emirates getting its dedicated area, other airlines will have more space at Terminal 1.
Griffiths added that although the airport had enough airfield capacity, there was a shortage of departure gates.
T3 will increase DIA's overall passenger handling capacity to 60 million.
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