Dubai will Modernize the Aviation Industry

Something’s up. Before this month the only Dubai I knew of was the guy I work with/make fun of. Now Dubai is becoming a very likely contender to be the next airport superpower. The city is now planning construction of a new airport, the Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International, which, together with the already-giant Dubai Airport (fourth busiest in the world) will handle a total of 160 million passengers a year by 2035. The new airport is planned to be one of the biggest in the world with five runways, the newest in air traffic management systems and a next-generation ATM system. These management systems offer a safer and more efficient travel experience with features such as multi-radar tracking capabilities, advanced flight data processing, online data interchange, and electronic flight strips. Don’t know what any of that means, but “multi” anything sounds efficient. Dubai’s success is evident in both their expansion and their sales. It is common knowledge that the more access people have to a city, the more their economy will grow as a result of business and tourism. For example, the airports’ Duty Free stores announced that its sales had topped $1 billion since the beginning of the year and could reach just under $1.5 billion by the year’s end. And another example, The airport has ordered $18 billion worth of Boeing 777 aircraft and is still signing options for another $8 billion worth of planes. We don’t know what’s gotten into Dubai, but we know what will be getting in: cash flow.