Qatar Plans New $2.5 Billion Airport in Doha

December 8, 2003

Qatar Plans New $2.5 Billion Airport in Doha  
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain 

DUBAI: Qatar announced here yesterday it will soon invite tenders for more than 
2.5 billion dollars in contracts to start building a new Doha airport which it 
envisions as a major travel hub to rival and even surpass Dubai.

"Construction companies will soon be able to bid for more than 2.5 billion 
worth of tenders for the first phase of Qatar's new signature airport," the 
chief executive of Qatar's Airways, Akbar al-Baker, told a press conference on 
the opening day of the Dubai air show.

He said phase one with a capacity of 12 million passengers a year would be 
completed in 2008.

The new airport "needs to set new standards and needs to be more than an 
ordinary transfer point but part of a fantastic travel experience," said Baker, 
whose company operates the current airport.

The plan for the 2,200 hectare (8.5 square mile) airport was drawn up by US 
engineering giant Bechtel.

It calls for a large area of land to be reclaimed from the sea and the 
construction of two parallel runways and 25 contact gates.

Baker said a second phase which would lift the airport's capacity to 50 million 
passengers a year would by completed by 2015.

He said Qatar's ambitions were backed by the emirate's growing economy -it 
boasts the world's third largest natural gas reserves - and aviation market.

The airline executive played down a plan by neighbouring Dubai to spend four 
billion dollars to expand its airport to handle annual traffic of about 30 
million passengers by 2010 and more than 60 million by 2020.

"Dubai has a different strategy and we have a different strategy," he said.

He claimed Qatar would be targeting a different segment of the aviation market 
than Dubai but refused to provide details.

"A good strategist does not reveal all his strategy, but you will see in two 
years," he said.

The head of the UAE's civil aviation department and the chairman of Dubai's 
flagship airline Emirates, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, told AFP that 
traffic at Dubai airport was growing by 14 percent a year.

Dubai's civil aviation department also reported in mid-October that passenger 
traffic at its airport jumped 11.8 percent in the first nine months of 2003 to 
13.2 million people, up from 11.8 million the previous year.

There were no figures on current passenger traffic at Qatar's airport, although 
Qatar Airways said it expected to carry 3.3 million passengers in 2003 - 30 
percent more than its 2.3 million customers the year before.

Qatar Airways, founded in 1994 and owned equally by Qatar's government and 
private investors, flies to 46 destinations in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, 
Middle East and North Africa.

It operates an all-Airbus fleet of 27 aircraft, but plans to increase it to 52 
in the next five years. In June it signed a 5.1 billion dollar order for 34 new 
Airbus jets.

 
 
 
 
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