A trial run of the fourth terminal at Dubai International Airport is scheduled to begin from August.
"Concourse D is taking shape, with the majority of the roof and external glass facade that overlooks the airfield in place and the rail link infrastructure connecting Terminal 1 progressing well," said Peter Moore, the head of terminal development at Dubai Airports.
“By August the first boarding gate will be available for training purposes and enable the trial programme to begin in earnest.”
Dubai Airports said that as was the case with last year’s opening of Concourse A, Concourse D will become the new home to more than 100 airlines that fly to Dubai.
Separately, Dubai International’s passenger numbers slightly dropped in May because of runway repairs.
The airport received 5.08 million passengers for the month, down 2.5 per cent from a year earlier. The runway repairs continue until July 20.
Aircraft movements dropped 26.6 per cent to 22,856 in May, down from the 31,121 from a year ago.
However, many airlines flying into Dubai International operated bigger aircraft, increasing the number of passengers per flight by 22 per cent.
"This increase was largely driven by Emirates' growing A380 fleet which has been extensively deployed during the runway upgrade programme," Dubai Airports said.
Emirates is the biggest operator of the A380 worldwide.
The airport operator expects passenger traffic growth to "remain flat or marginally decline" until the end of the runway repairs.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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