The UAE is already home to the world’s fasted roller coaster courtesy of Ferrari World’s Formula Rossa, as well as the steepest steel roller coaster in Flying Aces, which is also at the Abu Dhabi theme park.
And the country is set to receive more record breaking rides, according to US-based Six Flags, which is building a new park within the Dubai Parks and Resorts development at Jebel Ali.
“We anticipate the park will feature a number of innovative, record-breaking attractions and we will share more details when we get closer to the park opening (or as we progress through the construction process),” a Six Flags spokesperson told The National.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, the park will have the biggest roller coaster in the world.
It quoted John Odum, senior vice president of international park operations at Six Flags, as saying “there will be rides that are bigger, better, faster, broader than any rides in the world”.
The Six Flags park will contain 27 rides across six themed zones: Thrillseeker Plaza, Magic Mountain, Fiesta Texas, Great Escape, Great Adventure, and Great America. It will cost Dh2.6 billion to build – Dh1.68bn of which was raised through a rights issue in May.
The company currently holds the crown for the world’s tallest roller coaster thanks to its Kingda Ka ride in Jackson, New Jersey, which sends thrill seekers to a height of 456 feet.
Construction of the park started at the beginning of last month and is expected to complete in late 2019.
It comes as part of a spate of theme park construction in the Emirates, with Dubai Parks and Resorts to open its Motiongate, Bollywood and Legoland attractions on October 31.
IMG Worlds of Adventure, the world’s largest indoor theme park, will open in Dubai on August 31, while Miral Asset Management has announced plans to open a Warner Bros theme park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island in 2018.
ioxborrow@thenational.ae
mfahy@thenational.ae
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