Dubai's new DWC airport: Dh55 billion in new contracts expected by year-end

Dubai: Dubai Airports is set to award a further Dh55 billion worth of construction contracts before the end of the year, as work on Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) continues at full pace, its chief executive has revealed.

Paul Griffiths told reporters at a media roundtable on Wednesday that Dh13 billion of contracts are already under construction, with the additional Dh55 billion to be awarded in various packages over the coming months.

"We've already in the last 15 months committed 10 million work hours of activity to the new project," Griffiths said.

"17,000 piles are already in the ground, and 45 million cubic metres of earth has been moved at DWC. What other proof do you need that our confidence in the future is completely unfazed by the development of the new airport?"

No slowdown

Asked whether construction had slowed given the wider regional situation, Griffiths was blunt. "I have a one-word answer, and that is no," he said.

He acknowledged that global supply chains remain under strain, a challenge he said has persisted "really since the end of COVID", but insisted Dubai Airports was working around it. "We're mobilising suppliers from all the way across the world to ensure the project is completed on time," he said.

Griffiths described DWC as far more than a theoretical project. "All the numbers I've quoted at you are actually things that are happening now, and it reinforces our confidence that Al Maktoum International is not some theoretical project; it's actually happening," he said.

Capacity crunch

The urgency, he explained, comes down to simple maths. "By the time 2032 comes around, we will be at capacity at DXB, and the last thing the city is going to do is to allow its airport infrastructure to constrain its future growth."

Once operations shift to the new hub, Griffiths said, DXB's future would ultimately be a decision for the government.

"I can't see us operating two major hubs in close proximity for any length of time," he added, describing the eventual switchover as "the world's largest airport transition programme by a very significant margin."

New people mover

Passengers moving around the vast new campus will do so via a fully automated train system, with Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) selected as contractor. Griffiths confirmed MHI's role, adding that the firm already runs the train linking Terminal 3 and Concourse A at DXB.

"They are the providers of our train that goes between Terminal Three and Concourse A, and they've been selected to be the contractor for the circulation system around DWC," he said.

The system will connect all of DWC's concourses.

Pressed on the finer detail, Griffiths said, "It's difficult to describe because it will be a train that will connect all the different concourses together. If you're really interested in trains, I can talk you into the detail of them," he said, adding with a laugh that he might "spend my weekends riding on it, just for the fun of it".

Why it matters

DWC is being built to eventually handle 260 million passengers a year, forming the centrepiece of Dubai's long-term aviation strategy. The scale of committed spending — thousands of construction workers on site, tens of billions of dirhams in contracts, and a fully integrated transport system in the works — underlines that the project is moving ahead regardless of short-term regional headwinds.

Griffiths also pointed to a broader shift in aviation technology as reinforcing DWC's timing.

New long-range narrow-body aircraft, such as the Airbus A321XLR, could allow the airport to serve smaller markets that wide-body jets cannot justify economically.

"With our DWC project, the timing couldn't be better, because those aircraft will enable us to maybe boost the number of cities that we serve by maybe a factor of three. We could have 600 cities served directly from DWC by the time it opens," he said.

DXB upgrades too

The investment push is not confined to DWC. At DXB, Griffiths confirmed a newly refurbished "Hammerhead" (a t-shaped or widened terminal concourse) remote terminal off Concourse B is due to reopen shortly, alongside a new retail area.

Terminal 1 is also being refurbished, with new floors and additional security lanes being installed.

More advanced screening equipment from Smiths Detection is being rolled out so passengers no longer need to remove liquids or laptops from their bags. "The whole process is getting slicker, quicker, faster and more convenient," Griffiths said. "The old days of take your belts off, take your shoes off — that's going to be a thing of the past."

For now, though, the headline number remains DWC's construction pipeline: Dh13 billion already on site, and Dh55 billion more on the way before 2026 draws to a close.