Company Description and Market Analysis
Dubai Airports Company is classified as a publicly owned enterprise since it is managed by the Government of Dubai. The company consists of the two major international airports: The Dubai International Airport (DXB) located in Al Garhoud district and the Dubai World Central (DWC), otherwise known as Al Maktoum International Airport.
According to the Oxford Economics statistics, aviation supplied “over 416 thousand jobs and contributed over $26.7 billion to Dubai’s economy” (H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum: Powering the Engines of Prosperity, 2015). Merely Dubai International Airports have provided three thousand four hundred employees a year with the job that are connected with the various spheres of the services provided by the company (Dubai International Airport, 2016).
Hence, the areas of the marketplace that are covered by Dubai International Airports include a safe and world-class airport terminal, high-tech facilities and operations, diverse products and services in its retailers including Dubai duty free shops and diners, three hotels, as well as a number of business centres; catering the commercial flights; managing aircraft hangars; cargo services, etc.
The larger of the two airports is The Dubai International Airport (DXB), there are three airport terminals namely Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3 (Who We Are: Dubai Airports, 2016). In particular, only two of the terminals are equipped to manage the international flights – the fact that restricts the airport potential. However, for The Dubai World Central (DWC), there are a lot of innovations that can improve the airport’s status in the future.
Innovation Policies and Strategies
In the recent years, Dubai Airports Company was developing the strategies of how to turn the Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, which is now second largest in the city into one of the biggest airports in the world. The details of the initiative were presented to the public in 2014 as Dubai Airports Company revealed the plan of investing $32 billion in introducing the innovations and expanding the structure of Dubai World Central (DWC) within the Dubai Airports Strategic Plan 2020 (Dubai unveils expansion plans for ‘world’s biggest airport project’, 2014).
In terms of developing the innovations for The Dubai International Airport (DXB), the company is intended to update and improve the passenger screening and passenger control technologies. The conceptual innovations will include the already implemented E-gate counters at Passport Control that will be improved for quicker immigration processing for inbound air passengers.
In addition, the latest technologies of the integrated pre-screening will be implemented at all of the three DXB terminals, and it will involve retinal scanning and recognition. Such step is a part of the innovations in the sphere of safety policies, and it is going not only to improve the security systems of the airport and the safety of the passengers but also to enhance the security of the community in general.
Another recently introduced innovation in both of the airports was the Smart CIS. This mechanism helps to preserve the privacy of the inspection by using technological scanning and avoiding opening the passengers’ baggage. Such technology relates to the strategic policy of being customer-friendly and respecting the private space of the passengers, which will make their travelling less stressful.
Since the UAE were entitled to be the host of the World Expo 2020, there is a lot of pressure on the aviation industry. As Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum stated in his interview “the aim is to attract 25 million visitors, with 17 million of those coming from overseas” (Interview: Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, 2015, para. 2).
Therefore, one of the challenges for the airports is that the large passenger flow creates a great demand for the different services, the capacity of catering the flights, and improvement of the security measures. For the details of the visitor expectations in Dubai Airports, see Figure 1. Hence, for those reasons, the Dubai Airports Strategic Plan 2020 was developed.
Considering the passenger demand forecasts for the next years, one of the strategic initiatives for the Dubai Airports is the expansion of the terminals. Dubai World Central (DWC) and Dubai International (DXB) will be modified to fit the capacity of the 90 million passengers and 675,000 square meters of the terminals floor space by the year 2018 (Strategic Plan 2020, 2016). For the detailed plan of DXB’s Terminal 2 expansion, see the Figure 2.
Recommendation
The innovative policy for building the expansions is that the construction relies on the passenger forecasts, and yet it is designed to make as small as possible impact on the environment. The duration of the project allows the managers of the project to conduct sustainable construction and be user-oriented at the same time. One of the possible suggestion is to introduce some flexible elements to the strategic plan. For instance, the guideline regarding some of the building sites are already planned now, but it would be reasonable to monitor the passenger forecasts constantly and be able to implement some changes for the smaller details of the project.
It would be a substantial step for managing some of the minor risks. Although the greater perspective of the Dubai Airports strategic plan cannot and should not be largely modified, it would be quite useful to have some room for adapting the minor details concerning the later stages of the project. It is also important to underline the fact that it would help to reduce the risks associated with the introduction of any new or innovative policies or technologies at the airports since it would be possible to have some more testing ground for the experimental ideas or new services.
Also, considering the differences in the scales of The Dubai World Central (DWC) and Dubai International (DXB), there are a lot of innovations that can improve the overall perception of the former. One of the crucial aspects is its size, which becomes more important since the demand for the airport capacity will be growing by 2020. Therefore, it would be a useful consideration to expand the Dubai World Central (DWC) as well because it would add up to the consistent development of the company’s structure and the gradual and even manner of introducing innovations.
References
Dubai International Airport (BXM). (2016). Web.
Dubai unveils expansion plans for ‘world’s biggest airport project’. (2014). Web.
H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum: Powering The Engines Of Prosperity To Dubai Expo 2020 And Beyond. (2015). Entrepreneur. Web.
Interview: Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. (2015). Oxford Business Group. Web.
Strategic Plan 2020: Connecting the world today & tomorrow. (2016). Web.
Who We Are: Dubai Airports. (2016). Web.