Heathrow and Dubai : Airports with tense future. Part 2. Dubai International Airport.

Hello, dear readers, again!
Before starting, i would like to ask all my readers - please leave your comments on what you think about this blog! Your opinion is important for me, and also if you find any other clever ways of expansion for both, Heathrow and Dubai Airports, or anything other interesting facts, then please write your thoughts on the comments. I will consider everyone's suggestions, and I will even be happy to reply to you,
At Part 1 I have introduced fully about myself, and also written about the expansion problem for Heathrow Airport, and how could UK government simply solve that problem by buillding an another airport nearby London on the Thames river.
In here, at part 2 I would like to summarize the capacity problems at Dubai Airport.
So let's start, shall we?
Part 2 : Dubai International Airport.
What is problematic about Dubai Airport's capacity?

The main thing which threatens UAE’s busiest airport is its quick growth. In 2014, the airport served 70,5 million passengers, while in 1994, it served just 6,3 million passengers! Even in 2004, the number of passengers passed throughout the year was only 21,7 million. The passenger traffic in 2014 didn’t grow much because of the 80-day Dubai Airport’s runway extension. At that period the number of flights was decreased.  So what will happen in 2024? How many passengers will pass in that year? Can we predict? Yes. It will definitely be  over 100 million passengers, if the crisis won't hit Dubai. If it does, then, I don't think that the number of passengers will decrease, it is most likely just to grow slowly, or about 2-4% per year.

Dubai International Airport : capacity 

If we count up all terminals' capacity, then the total capacity will be 93 million passengers per year, including the new concourse D which is expected to open in the next 4 months. But Dubai Airport is already reached 70,5 million passengers in 2014, and the number of passengers in 2015 should reach over 75 million, which means that the number of passengers passing throughout the year in 3-4 years will definitely reach over 93 million. 

                                                             Dubai Airport's Terminal 3

What about starting making Al-Maktoum bigger? Some facts about the airport.

Al-Maktoum Airport, is located 37 kilometers southwest from Dubai. Airport has a good location to expand and to make itself the busiest airport in the world, but when shall they start doing this? In 5 years? In 10 years? Hmmm... as quick as possible... (sorry guys if I am being wrong, I don't know whether the government either started or not building another terminals at Al-Maktoum, but if they didn't yet, then it's just sort of an encouragement for them and for other people also:) )

Also, if the UAE government decides to start construction of a big terminal and some runways with a capacity of, for example, 60 million passengers - then this construction will take no less than 4 years. If they want to just build a medium-sized terminal for now which probably will have a capacity of 30 million passengers, then I think that it shall take no more than 2,5 - 3 years.

So here are some facts about Al-Maktoum Airport :

- Al-Maktoum already serves some flights, e.g. Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Wizz Air, and other airlines.

- Al-Maktoum also already operates for many cargo flights.

- For now, there is a lot of space for Al-Maktoum to expand. Nearly thrice of its already size.
Though you can build an airport anywhere!
It is a good benefit to UAE that it has a plenty of space to build as much airports as they want to. In the deserts, if the government wants to, they can even build an airport with a runway 20,000 meters long. But of course, construction takes time. It could take from 3 years up to 10 years, it depends on the size of the airport that they want to build. Dubai can have 3 airports in use - Dubai International in future as for regional flights, Al-Maktoum as a world central airport, and probably another airport in the desert south from Dubai for low-cost carriers such as FlyDubai and others. But the main benefit which flydubai gets is the number of transit passengers. I should not guess, but probably I think that half of total Dubai Airport's passenger traffic including flyDubai's is for transit passengers, especially for the travelers from Europe to South and Southeast Asia or the other way. In this case , for example, having a low cost airport and separately Al-Maktoum, is problematic because transit passengers have to get a visa so that they can enter UAE to get to the other airport. But they can solve in two easy simple steps - 1st is making a UAE non-visa for transit - for 24 hours, no more is required, and 2nd is creating a good transportation ability from Al-Maktoum to that low-cost airport. Also there is a benefit - airport will be located far away from Dubai, and that's good for low-cost carriers.
Benefits of building a low-cost airport
Sometimes, tourists travelling to UAE stumble with the expensive cost of trip to Dubai. So the best option for them is to book a flight with a low-cost airline, so that at least they can save money for tickets. It is also good for transit passengers - they can get a quite cheap flight to their destination via Dubai. In case, if we build a low-cost airport, FlyDubai could have a base there with the other airlines like Wizz Air, Ryanair, Easyjet, and others operating flights there. What about naming? The airport can be named after any famous UAE Sheikhs or other important peoples who have done a lot for UAE to thrive. For example, it could be named after Sheikh Zayed after all. Airport could be located 50km south from Dubai in the deserts, quite not far away  from Al-Maktoum. UAE Government could arrange a non-stop express train between Al-Maktoum and planned low-cost airport, the journey in which will take as fast as 15-25 minutes.
"Why there is such a big growth?"
Asking this question, towards Dubai, would be a bit foolish, if you don't know yet that Dubai has a big "boom" of constructions of buildings and there is a plan of making Dubai as a big financial and economical center since 1990s. But I think that most of the buildings and roads were started constructing in the early and mid-2000s. Since then, Dubai Airport plays an important role and is not only for passengers travelling to/from Dubai, but also at that time there was started developing flights for transit passengers, so now passengers could use Dubai Airport as a flight connection airport.

                                               Flashback : Dubai in 1990s , and in 2008.

Heavy planes - usual for Dubai Airport!
Especially with Emirates airline. Emirates has 65 Airbus A380 planes in their fleet, and has another 75 in order, so it is the largest operator of that aircraft type in the world. Do you know how does the A380 look like? It is the biggest passenger jet in the world. Emirates is a very surprising airline in case of operating their A380 most often comparing to any other airline, obviously because of the number of those plane types in their fleet.
Also, there is a special terminal at Dubai Airport, concourse A, designated especially for Airbus A380 aircraft.  Obviously , Al-Maktoum needs also that kind of terminal, and even bigger, if all flights of Emirates are decided to move there.
Concourse A is connected to Terminal 3, which handles only flights of Emirates and Qantas.

Comparison of Dubai Airport and Heathrow : both have two runways, but how we could say that traffic at Dubai Airport is a bit easier than at Heathrow? Let's have a look.
Dubai Airport and Heathrow Airport both have two runways. In 2014, Heathrow served totally 73,4 million passengers, Dubai, however, served only 70,47 million. But still, that's close, right? If not in 2015, then in 2016 Dubai definitely will overtake Heathrow by the number of passengers annually. Dubai served 70,4 million passengers in 2014 because of the reconstruction of a runway during summer (Dubai Airport runway maintenance project), which took about 90 days, I think. During that time, a number of flights either decreased, or transferred to Al-Maktoum or Sharjah temporarily. If it wasn't the maintenance project, then I am assuming that Dubai would serve about 71,5 - 72,8 million passengers last year.
Aircraft types
 Heathrow accepts not only flights from far away, but plenty from the Europe. The aircraft used for flying to/from Europe to Heathrow is usually Boeing 737/Airbus A320.
Dubai Airport accepts mostly wide-body jets, because Emirates has only wide-body jets in their fleet, and also other airlines mostly operate wide-body jets to Dubai.
Thus, if we sum up all this, then what do we get? I think that Heathrow's traffic is heavier in terms of aircraft movements than in Dubai more (percentage) (2014 statistics) than the percentage difference of Dubai Airport's and Heathrow's passenger traffic in 2014. It is because Heathrow accepts smaller jets more often than Dubai is. That's also the reason for why when you land in Dubai you don't actually make circles around the airport, so the traffic is easier in here.
24 hours of flights departing and arriving per day
That's a big reason for why Dubai Airport's traffic is not so big as Heathrow's is. Dubai Airport works 24 hours per day, and the busiest time there is night time. In contrast, Heathrow opens for arrivals at around 5am, and closes down for the night after the last flight departs at 10:50pm. So as we see, Heathrow "sleeps" at night for 6 hours.
Deficit of runways problem is already covers Dubai Airport, but it will be as worse as in Heathrow in the next 5 years!
As we already know, Dubai Airport has a little bit less problem about deficit of runways than Heathrow, because the capacity of planes which land and depart from Dubai is bigger than at Heathrow, and Dubai works non-stop while Heathrow doesn't accept any flights between 11pm and 5am, and even if there is an emergency situation, I believe so.
But we also know that Dubai's passenger traffic grows more rapidly than Heathrow's, and you know, the traffic growth doesn't "care" at Dubai. It will continue to grow in big temps, even if there is no space for that amount of passengers. But this is not an excuse for not expanding the capacity. Probably in 5 years, in 2020, planes would have to make several circles around Dubai before landing, or planes which are departing, have to wait for a 30-50-minute queue for the runway. But this won't happen, if there will be no deficit of runways, right? So the only way to do this is to build some more runways and terminals at Al-Maktoum, or at least to build a new airport in the deserts so that all Flydubai flights could move there.

Dubai International Airport at night

Saudia Airbus A330 landing in Dubai

British Airways and Emirates Boeing 777s at Dubai Airport.

Ok guys, that's it for now. All my suggestions for Dubai and Heathrow are provisional, and I might be a little bit wrong in something.
Thank you guys for reading, and please leave your comments! Your opinion is important also!

Heathrow and Dubai : Airports with tense future. Part 1. Heathrow Airport.

Dear readers, before starting I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Smaiyl, and I am 13 years old. I am from Almaty, Kazakhstan.I am passionate about civil aviation, and hopefully my future job will be an airline owner and a designer of airport terminals.

The reason of why I have chosen this topic to write a blog, is that I would like to share my thoughts with you about the reasons of why the government of UK and UAE needs to start thinking about future plans of their main airports, or if they do so already, then just to share my opinion and my point of view with you of about how could those airports, for example, expand, and also some interesting facts about those two airports ,of which only some people know.

Heathrow and Dubai are both one of the most important transportation destinations of the world, and both of them are keep growing without stopping.

In this blog you could see both airports' problems such as capacity problems, a lack of runways, and some possible ways of expanding. So enjoy!

Part 1 : Heathrow Airport.

What threatens  the future of Heathrow?

Some young aviators like me probably know the reason, because it's quite simple. So the main thing which threatens Heathrow is the increase of traffic , and a lack of space. Not today, but in next 10 years I’m sure that Heathrow will have problems with its increasing traffic. In 2014, Heathrow reached its record of 73 million passengers. Just 20 years ago, in 1994, Heathrow already served 51,7 million passengers. In 2004, the airport served 67,3 million passengers. How many passengers are going to pass through Heathrow in 2024 ? If we try to predict, then it probably should be around 78 million passengers. But how we can increase the number of passenger traffic, if the capacity is not big enough ? A serious question, needs a serious answer.

Night time – no flights at all! 

There are no flights departing or arriving at Heathrow during the nighttime. The last flight departs at 10:50pm. Heavy traffic appears from 7am and ends at around 9pm. If Heathrow would handle flights during nighttime, then wouldn't it be easier for carriers and airport to handle passengers, and also sort out the capacity? Hmmmm...

Terminal 5 – exclusively for a flag carrier !

I think that Terminal 5 is the busiest terminal at Heathrow. Sometimes, there is no space nearby T5 for airplanes to park after they landed, so some of them have to park at a remote stand. Terminal 5 was opened at 2008, and It's located at the west part of the airport. Today it is used only by British Airways and Iberia (they are big partners  and both members of International Airlines groupJ). 

                                   Heathrow Terminal 5 

Nowhere to expand!

That threatens Heathrow’s future a lot. There’s actually no space to expand – nor even to expand the present terminals. Heathrow’s surroundings all covered by towns and by the reservoir at the south. There is also no place to build another terminal – every meter is occupied.

First - make a circle, then - land!

Have you ever realized that before you land at Heathrow, you have to make circles around the airport? It’s because of the heavy traffic. Almost every plane, especially from America, has to make a couple of circles before queueing to final approach. For example, this trans-European flight (at the screenshot below) from Geneva made 3 circles before it went to queue the final approach lane.

A queue to land - final approach!

As you see at the screenshot below, after planes make some circles, they start queueing for final approach. you probably know, Heathrow has only two runways. So the use of them is simple – one for planes to land, and one for take off. That’s why there is a heavy traffic. I wonder, how nervous is the job for pilots and dispatchers to manage everything, especially during landing! At the screenshot, all the planes which are heading west and then turning towards the east – are to land.

"Special" airlines - little, but quite interesting facts!

- Emirates operates 5 daily Dubai - London Heathrow - Dubai flights , and as of August 2015, all of them are served by the biggest passenger jet in the world, the superjumbo, Airbus A380!

- Malaysia Airlines operates 2 daily flights to Heathrow, and both of flights are also served by A380!

What about changing major UK airport to Gatwick?

Gatwick Airport is the 2nd biggest and busiest airport in the UK. Also, Gatwick has quite a lot of space to expand their terminals, towards south and a little bit towards the west. But one problem faces Gatwick is that there is also a deficit of runways. In Gatwick there are also two runways - but they are located so close to each other, so that only one could be used at a time. Also, if we count up the number of passengers served annually with only one runway being used at once, the traffic problem here is even more worse than at Heathrow, because the number of passengers here is 38,1 million (2014), so it's even more than twice less the number of passengers served at Heathrow , 73 million (also 2014 statistics) . At Heathrow, both runways could be used at the same time, because they are located far from each other.

Distance and transportation - another problem for Gatwick

Gatwick is located 52km (or 32 miles) south from Central London, and if you use a car to get there, there is a high possibility that you will spend quite a lot of time in a traffic jam. The journey from Central London to Gatwick by car/taxi will take no less than 1 hour, so it's sort of, not useful.

Heathrow is located just 26km (or 16 miles) west from Central London, which is twice closer, than Gatwick is. Also, towards the west there is somehow a less possibility to get stuck in a traffic jam, as far as I know.

There is also an express train running between Heathrow and London Paddington station, and between Gatwick and London Victoria station. The express train to Heathrow takes just 15-20 minutes (that's surprising!) from London, while the express train to Gatwick takes usually 35 minutes, sometimes even 40-45 minutes, and that's not an exaggeration. It's the information from my own experience.
What about building a new airport away from London?
My opinion is that UK government could build a large international airport on river Thames nearby Canvey Island, which is approximately 40 miles from Central London. The capacity of the airport could be as large as 100 million passengers per year. Road to the airport could pass either nearby Canvey Rd or from the south, nearby villages of High Halstow and Cooling. Or we can say that the airport would be located on water (like Hong Kong airport) about 10 miles south-west from Southend-on-Sea city. I also thought about the name of the airport - it could be simply named as London-Essex International Airport, or it could be named after architect Peter Cook, who was born in the city of Southend-on-Sea.
London-Essex Airport - a replacement for Heathrow!
Not a long time ago, but I have read somewhere that the government wants/plans to shut down Heathrow and instead on the same place build something different, I think houses (sorry I can't remember). Well, of course, everyone is used to Heathrow. No one probably wishes for it to close forever. But just in case of replacement, building an airport at an artificial island would be useful. I mean makimg Essex Airport a major one in the UK. Then, if Peter Cook International Airport would replace Heathrow, then it has to have the capacity of at least 120 million passengers per year. It could have about 6-7 runways, so that there won't be any problems with heavy traffic. The government could also plan up the express train from the city centre to the airport - but at least the journey time should take 30 minutes.
Airport located very close to planned London-Essex Airport - London Southend!
Southend Airport doesn't take an important role at London air transportation. It is not even as important as low-cost airports such as Luton or Stansted. In 2014, Southend served only 1,1 million passengers. So why should it exist? I am not being mean, but there is no point to keep this airport working for regular flights, if there are just about 20 flights per day, no more than that. All flights could move either to Gatwick, either to Stansted, or either to Luton. Airport can continue working as an aviation museum for tourists.

                 Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 at London Heathrow Airport.

                 Emirates Airbus A380 taking off from London Heathrow Airport


Well guys, that's it for now. You can read Part 2 where I discuss about Dubai Airport. I hope you enjoyed this blog :).