Eight mini airports within one major sizable airport
Plans are rapidly moving forward for Dubai World Central (DWC), the city’s promising future aviation hub near Al Maktoum International Airport. In the proposed $35 billion passenger terminal, which is expected to open in 2033, plans are in progress to construct an internal transportation system, which will include an extensive train network, planned to be operating in underground.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, stated on the discussion of the Arabian Travel Market that an underground rail system is being considered to reduce travel distances and important transfer times for passengers connecting between flights due to the large scale of the facility.
According to him, internal transit times inside the new terminal complex might take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, which is similar to trips between major rail stations in big cities, such as the London travel from King’s Cross to Paddington.
Griffiths states that in order to guarantee passenger comfort over the travel distances, internal trains are anticipated to have seating.
At Dubai International Airport, the Automated People Mover (APM) currently in use transports travellers between Terminals 1 and 3. The travel is short and there aren’t many seats available for women, children, or senior citizens on the APMs.
Internal transportation will be essential due to the new terminal’s enormous size. “If you consider it to be such a large site, the same sort of distance by rail will be similar to going from, say, King’s Cross to Paddington in London, which is sort of a 20-minute journey time,” Griffiths stated. So, we will need to make it very fast and efficient.
The emphasis is very clear: “We must make it quick. When it comes to the flow of transfer passengers to and from the area, we need to make it competitive and efficient,” as the aviation expert clarified.
Awarded contracts
Griffiths’ remarks come a day after Dubai Airports Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum stated that major contracts have been given to contractors and that construction has begun since the Dubai government approved the $35 billion passenger terminal about a year ago.
Griffiths acknowledged that Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), the company responsible for overseeing the entire project construction process, has been in charge of awarding contracts for the construction of the new terminal, however Sheikh Ahmed did not elaborate on the nature of the contracts.
According to Griffiths, Dubai Airports is focused on making sure the design satisfies operational requirements, while DAEP manages construction.
Griffiths claims that WSP, a multinational consulting firm with headquarters in Canada, has been given a significant contract to do a “concept of operations” in order to evaluate the design and offer input on performance goals. According to Griffiths, the design phase is a “iterative process” that is continuously evaluated to make sure it is “fit for purpose.”
Design procedure
Eight mini-airports housed within a single, sizable airport is still a key component of the design. “The goal is to avoid building a massive airport with long walking distances. Making something original is what we want to attempt. To guarantee that we can efficiently run eight smaller airports inside one larger airport and provide a more personal experience, we’ll be utilising some very important data techniques driven by AI,” he said.
As part of the reasoning for granting early contracts, he also stated that although things are always being improved, they will eventually need to “freeze” the design in order to proceed with construction.
How will the eight nodes function?
According to Griffiths, this will be accomplished in part by integrating AI, which will analyse enormous volumes of data. By carefully placing aircraft to reduce walking distances and the need for lengthy trips within the airport, the AI will optimise operations, especially handling passenger transfers between the nodes.
Griffiths stated, “We want to try and do is put all the aircraft that are going to be exchanging customers across those transfer flows onto a single concourse if you’re arriving on one node and transferring to another flight.”
To ensure the greatest outcome, he continued, “the idea is to minimise walking distances, maximise the efficiency of the way aircraft are deployed and to put an AI model in to analyse the enormous amount of data that will be constantly changing.”
The goal is to eliminate the typical annoyances of traversing big airports and instead create a dynamic, flexible and extremely customer-friendly atmosphere.
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