Transforming Dubai into a Global Air Hub

In the past decade, Dubai has grown from a small regional refueling stop to the largest international air hub in the world.

Air travel has become a core part of Dubai’s economic development strategy, and its Emirates airline has become an important global brand. Leveraging its position at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, the Dubai International Airport serves 67 million passengers annually and over 125 international airlines. Traffic is expected to double over the next five years, requiring close coordination among the four international airports in the vicinity.

Given the critical importance of air safety, Dubai chose to partner with Serco to provide a range of critical air navigation services and build domestic air traffic control capacity to support its rapid growth. Under a 10-year agreement signed in 2009, this relationship expanded to the new Al Maktoum International Airport, which will add an additional five parallel runways with the capability of handle 120 million additional passengers. Serco also provides modeling and analysis to assist Dubai with planning for its future needs, given the rapid pace of growth.

The range of services provided by Serco includes:

• Air traffic engineering
• Communication, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM)
• Air Traffic Control training & simulation
• Strategic planning & program management
• Air Traffic Safety training & quality management
• Meteorological services
• IT services & aeronautical information management

Serco has helped Dubai to develop a world-class team of Emirati air traffic controllers and continually updates their skills to keep up with the latest technologies and international standards.

Working with Dubai Airports, Serco recently designed and commissioned a state-of-the-art 360 degree air traffic control simulation tower that has won international recognition.

Key accomplishments include:

• Relocating and upgrading radar system in six months
• World’s largest tower ATC simulation
• Planning for future adoption of virtual tower operations
• Transition to Required Navigational Performance (RNP) parallel approach system that will generate an additional $7 billion in revenues

Dubai Airports has consistently given Serco high marks for achieving critical metrics including capacity growth, runway throughput, safety, program delivery and developing people. Serco is proud to have contributed to the astounding rise of Dubai to become the world’s busiest international air hub.