Dubai to invest $32bn in airport to meet Emirates' growth

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While the UK glares at its collective navel, arguing over whether and how to invest in additional airport capacity, other countries show no such indecisiveness. Dubai has announced plans to develop further its new Al Maktoum airport to handle 120m passengers a year within the next six to eight years – and 240m ultimately. The plan is to expand in incremental steps of 20m passenger-capacity, which would align with airline Emirates’ growth plan. Meanwhile, the runway upgrade at DXB will allow aircraft arrivals to increase from 33 to 45 an hour. Dubai’s passenger and cargo aircraft movements are forecast to reach 416,650 and 35,000 respectively by 2015, while overall, Dubai is projected to handle 660,000 movements by 2020.