Dubai's Latest Project Underway: $82 Billion Aerospace Center

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed)
Sep 26th 2008 at 9:03AM

It's hard, these days, to read or hear a sentence about Dubai that doesn't end with a staggering financial figure, usually in the many billions or at least the hundreds of millions. Sheikh Al Mahtoum's vision of Dubai's world-class aerospace center is no different, and investors the world over are trying to get in on the action since its announcement this summer that the project was now well underway.

25 miles outside of Dubai, the land on which contractors from the UAE and Europe have begun construction was slated for development 30 years ago (the equivalent of a century or two in any other developed country). The project adds up to $82 billion in cutting edge technology, aircraft, surrounding residential areas and training options.

At the heart of the plan is the $10 billion Al Maktoum International Airport, which would be twice as big as London's Heathrow and Chicago's sprawling O'Hare airports combined, or roughly double the size of Hong Kong.

Tags: air travel, AirTravel, al maktoum international airport, AlMaktoumInternationalAirport, aviation, dubai, jetsetters, sheikh al maktoum, SheikhAlMaktoum