Ra’s Al-Khaimah’s Port Saqr, located next to the emirate’s fast-growing industrial complex of Khour Kuwair, handles 90 percent of the UAE’s cement exports and recently constructed several new berths to handle growing business.

Fujairah Port also expanded its fuel storage facilities to 12 million tons of fuel oil per year, making the port the world’s second largest fuel storage facility in the world (behind only Singapore, and ahead of Rotterdam). Umm Al-Qaiwain has a four-berth deep-water port adjacent to its free trade zone. The FTZ offers such incentives to investors as 100 percent foreign ownership, no sponsorship requirements, and no customs charges or export taxes.

Airports and Aviation Services

The UAE is in the midst of an airport boom fueled by the growing economy, the expanding tourism industry, and the country’s dynamic young airlines, which are successfully extending their route systems across the globe. The fact that two billion people live within four hours flying time of the UAE makes the country a strategic passenger transport hub.

The “takeoff” of the UAE as an aviation hub was inspired by the open skies policy formulated by the late Dubai Ruler Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum in the early 1980s, along with the creation of Emirates Airlines. It was the willingness of Dubai to break the monopoly on landing and transit rights that put Dubai International Airport on the map and created the region’s first open and commercially competitive aviation industry.

During the coming 20 years, the UAE is planning to spend at least $20 billion on airport expansion and modernization, including the redevelopment of Abu Dhabi International Airport, the expansion of Dubai International Airport, and the construction of Dubai World Central, which aims to be nothing less than the planet’s biggest and busiest airport.

The Dubai International Airport is the busiest in the Arab world.

Abu Dhabi International Airport

Abu Dhabi International Airport handled over six million passengers in 2006, and in the first quarter of 2007 passenger traffic was up 25 percent over the same period in 2006. The airport is taking this influx in passengers in stride: In March 2007, Airports Council International proclaimed Abu Dhabi International “Best Airport in Africa and the Middle East,” based on passenger satisfaction.

An $8 billion expansion program will bring new runways, passenger terminals and cargo facilities, as well as a new free trade zone located on the airport grounds. Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, will be the airport’s prime tenant (see inset box on page 22). By 2010, Abu Dhabi International will be able to handle 20 million passengers and two million tons of freight per year.

Expansion in Dubai

Dubai has even more ambitious plans: to rival Heathrow, Atlanta and O’Hare as major transit hubs. The push by Emirates Airlines to become the world’s largest air carrier, coupled with plans to spend billions of dollars on airport expansion, suggests that this dream may well become a reality for Dubai.

Dubai International Airport, the Middle East’s busiest, handled over 25 million passengers in 2006, flying on 113 airlines to over 160 global destinations. An ongoing expansion project, including new terminals and concourses for Emirates Airlines, will bring ultimate capacity to 70 million passengers.

Cargo handled by the airport’s “Cargo Village” approached 1.5 million tons in 2006, and that number is expected to grow significantly in 2007. By expanding operations at the Cargo Village, Dubai is moving into territory that one might never associate with the Arab world. For example, the Dubai Flower Center, located at the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority complex, has in a few short years become the center of the global flower and fresh fruit and vegetable air cargo business.

Dubai World Central

As impressive as Dubai International’s growth has been, it soon will have stiff competition. Dubai World Central – a massive, multi-phase development – will be a 140 square kilometer city, almost twice the size of Hong Kong Island. Located at Jebel Ali, the UAE’s largest port, Dubai World Central will be a new city where an estimated 750,000 people will live and work. The infrastructure costs alone to build Dubai World Central will run to $33 billion.

At the heart of Dubai World Central is Dubai World Central International Airport – which will be the world’s largest passenger and

An artist’s rendering of the Dubai World Central International Airport.

cargo hub with a design capacity of over 12 million tons of cargo and over 120 million passengers annually. “With Dubai World Central we are taking the future into our own hands,” notes Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Emirates Group. “Dubai World Central will not only cater to economic growth but will be a strong catalyst for our next wave of development as a truly global commercial, trade and logistics hub,” he adds.

Dubai World Central will be ten times the size of the current Dubai International Airport and Dubai Cargo Village combined. Its passenger capacity of over 120 million passengers a year may be contrasted with the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield International. In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, Hartsfield handled 83.5 million passengers.

At Dubai World Central, one terminal will be dedicated to Emirates Airlines, a second terminal will be for other regional and international carriers, and a third terminal is earmarked for low cost charter airlines. The new airport will be linked to Dubai International Airport via an express rail system.

A key component of the Dubai World Central development is to be known as Dubai Logistics City. Spanning 25 square kilometers, Dubai Logistics City is designed to handle 12 million tons of air cargo annually in up to 16 air cargo terminals. With its proximity to the enormous and growing sea cargo and manufacturing center at Jebel Ali, the integration of air and sea cargo will provide Dubai with a shipping advantage unmatched anywhere in the world except, perhaps, in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Sharjah and Ra’s Al-Khaimah

Not to be outdone by Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the Emirates of Sharjah and Ra’s Al-Khaimah are also expanding their airport facilities. Sharjah International Airport was recently expanded to handle up to eight million