Dubai’s second airport, Dubai World Central, which is 40 km away from the city, will open its passenger terminal on Oct. 27 with two budget airlines.
Saudi Arabia’s first low-cost carrier nasair and Budapest-based Wizz Air will be the launching airlines. Dubai World Central will gradually take all passenger traffic from Dubai International, which is running out of space.
“We welcome our launch airlines Wizz Air and nasair. We look forward to announcing additional airlines and services in the months to come," Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said yesterday.
Dubai World Central started its cargo operation on June 27, 2010 and had quickly established itself as an emerging cargo airport in the region with 36 airlines handling 219,092 ton air freight on 16,317 aircraft movements during 2012.
"A new era in Dubai's already proud aviation story is set to begin. The introduction of passenger services from Dubai World Central is the first step in the long term development of the airport and will provide an attractive alternative to travelers,” Griffiths added.
The nasair official said that they had plans to operate over 50 flights per week between Dubai and a number of destinations in Saudi Arabia. “From October, our travelers will have the opportunity to enjoy same-day travel between Dubai World Central and all major Saudi cities due to our convenient and seamless flight timings. At the same time, we will maintain our long-standing flights from Dubai International," said nasair CEO Captain Francois Bouteiller.
“The new services from Dubai World Central would stimulate a further increase in the number of destinations between the new airport and other destinations in nasair's network as well as encourage leisure traffic between Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” Bouteiller added.
Wizz Air, which provides low-cost air transport across 30 countries with 16 bases across Europe, will provide nonstop services linking Dubai World Central to Central and Eastern Europe. Wizz Air has a fleet of 40 Airbus A320 aircraft operating over 1,500 weekly flights to 93 destinations.
“This is a significant milestone for us with our 10 year European success story now crossing borders far beyond Europe, sharing the benefit of efficient airline operations and low fares with many more international customers,” said Jozsef Varadi, CEO of Wizz Air.
However, major airlines, including Emirates, have not indicated any plans to move to the new facility. Sources close to the aviation industry told Arab News that some other key airlines from Asia have plans to operate from Dubai World Center and discussions are on.
Dubai World Central's passenger terminal building was completed in 2012. Upon completion, Dubai World Central will become the world's largest passenger and cargo hub with five parallel runways and an ultimate capacity of 160 million passengers and 12 million ton cargo per annum.
Currently, a number of airlines operate cargo flights to Frankfurt-Hahn, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Kandahar, Chennai, Doha, Jeddah, Lagos, N'Djamena, Riyadh, etc., from Dubai World Central.
Designed for the future, the facility proposes to handle all next-generation aircraft, including the Airbus A380 super-jumbo. Up to four aircraft will be able to land simultaneously, 24 hours a day, minimizing in-air queuing. The facility has a total of 100,000 parking slots for staff and customers.
New Dubai airport: Nasair, Wizz launching service
