DUBAI // Getting to and from the airport in Dubai will become more convenient thanks to a more efficient design, Dubai Airports’ chief executive said.
Paul Griffiths said Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport will include state-of-the-art facilities and allow passengers to use smartphones to find their way and their baggage.
“We will keep walking distances to within 400 metres,” he said at the Future of Borders conference on Thursday.
“Its initial capacity of 120 million will develop to 240 million, so we’ve got to work hard on making sure the airport’s scale is not a very scary prospect for our customers.”
The US$32 billion (Dh117.5bn) development will invest in passenger-centric design.
“We’re using very new thinking, processes and facilities for security,” Mr Griffiths said.
“The message here is that we’re not going to continue with the current airport experience. We’ve got to reinvent it, use the latest technology and embed all of those different components into our airport operational process.”
Dubai International expects 126 million travellers by 2020.
“We can simulate that people have a better customer service if we plan our resources intelligently to avoid queues,” he said. “Technology is not just about simulation, it’s about measurements because if you can’t measure what’s going on, you can’t take appropriate action to resolve the problem.”
CCTV technology will measure the fluctuations in the 4,500 passengers who clear immigration every hour.
“We’ve got the technology now to be able to make very smart decisions to dramatically improve customer service by matching the resource requirements very carefully with what our customers need to deliver good service.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
