Readers of Business Traveller Germany magazine have voted Dubai International Airport the Best in the Middle East and Africa and the second best in the world in a recent survey for the year 2002.
In the World’s Best category Singapore came in first with Hong Kong coming in third. Dubai International Airport has won the Business Traveller Germany award for the first time in the airport category.
The awards have evolved from being only a duty free award to encompassing the entire airport operation. Earlier Dubai Duty Free received the Business Traveller Germany award for seven consecutive times for the best duty free worldwide. The awards now recognize that airports are a much larger entity than ever before.
The airport award category introduced this year, is given on the basis of services provided such as baggage delivery, check in, front line staff services, facilities and duty free shopping, which has contributed greatly to achieving the award. Survey forms were included in Business Traveller Germany and sent to every subscriber in the region. More than 3,000 readers turned in the survey forms.
The Department of Civil Aviation commenced the second phase of the Dubai International Airport expansion last year. The $4.1 billionn expansion program includes the construction of Terminal 3, concourse 2 and concourse 3, all of which will be exclusive to Emirates airlines, a Mega Cargo Terminal and a major upgrade of Terminal 2.
The entire project is slated to be completed by 2006. With the completion of the second phase Dubai International Airport will have the capacity to handle 60 million passengers a year. In the year 2002, 16 million passengers passed through Dubai while over 17 million are expected this year. According to forecasts, 30 million passengers are expected by the year 2010. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
